TED has a great short video of a scientist called Christopher deCharms explaining some of the possibilities of functional brain scans – “fMRI”s.
This is a fascinating technology – looks like a brain scan but in colour. The active areas of the brain “light up” in bright colours which allows us to map functions, including thoughts and feelings. This is letting us develop new levels of understanding about how the brain works.
I’ve seen this sort of technology explained before but what especially excited me about this short talk is the demonstration of its use as a type of biofeedback. You will see an example of a patient with chronic pain interacting with the scan to actually increase the release of the brain’s natural painkillers (endorphins) and reduce his pain.
The potential, only hinted at here, is of technologies which will allow us to access natural ways of dealing with our own illnesses.
Heroes Not Zombies 
How cool the tech is speeding up so fast! I know researchers were working on why people vote for one political candidate or another based on how our brains fire when seeing a photo of them. In this country, democrats have a more positive response in their brains for democratic candidates and a more negative one for republicans, and vice-versa.
Anyhow, how do you think this will work in relation to brain plasticity?
Also, as a science fiction fan, I can see this becoming abused, too — people competing to maximize control in an area of their brain for work productivity or something else (Reality TV comes up with the Brain Game …) or someone creating a drug to help enhance performance — yes, no?
I wonder if I had one of these scans a few years ago. It was in the nuclear medicine department. They used a VERY expensive dye to highlight the brain features and to be able to show exactly the neuro activity in the brain through stimulation. It was fascinating to watch via the MRI scan. I was told that the die costs rediculous amounts of money…. like $30k per dose…..not including the scan costs… doctors etc.
The results were amazing. Seeing the 3 dimensional scan and the stimulation of each sector. Also the exact positioning of the brain, the slippage down the spinal column was very interesting….
This is very exciting. Imagine being able to teach people how to work their own brains to manage their own conditions!
I am also in awe of the workings of the human brain.
We have a notoriously nutty bass player in the County. Of course, I can’t tell his name. We’ll call him B.P. for bass player.
One day a patient asked, “Doc, you reckon you guys’ll ever come up with a way to do a brain transplant?”
“No, I think that is very unlikely. The human brain is too complicated. Besides, you’d wind up thinking like whoever’s brain you happened to get.”
He thought about that a minute. “Hm, It’d be just my luck to get ole B.P.’s brain.”
He decided he was against brain transplants.
Dr. B
Doc Bibey, I can think of a WHOLE bunch of people whose brains I’d not want, too!
I remember, many years back, seeing a truly horrible movie about a device that was able to capture the wearer’s thoughts so that others could experience them. I don’t remember the name of the movie (Dreamscape, maybe? I believe the payoff came when someone wore the device just before they died, and the consequences to subsequent wearers was pretty dire).
Anyway, my point in bringing that up is that the premise of the film was intriguing. Sometimes, I’d dearly love to know how others are perceiving the things I see (why it is that, despite our not unsubstantial talent for communication, sometimes Mr. Chili and I just miss each other’s points, for example). The truth of the matter is that we’re all creating our own realities, and often (more often than not), those realities don’t mesh. Just a moment or two of someone else’s processes and realities might be nice, but I have to admit that I’ve grown rather comfortable in my own head….
[…] recent studies using fMRI scans, have shown how this area of the brain (the striatum) becomes active when people received either […]