Non-medical use of imaging

Skeptics who doubt the effectiveness of computed scanner of the brain to identify perjury, got a new argument in its favor. It seems that you can really outsmart tomography.

In a related study conducted at Harvard Medical School, involved 26 volunteers. A brain scan was carried out at a time when the subjects watched the screen, where the six calendar dates alternated every half second. It was necessary to push the buttons "Yes" or "no" in cases where the number or may not coincide with the date of their own birth. In the first part of the experiment there was no correspondence, and study participants with a pure heart pressed the button "No". But the second part of one of the dates coincided with the date of birth, but the subjects were asked to lie still and still press "No".

Professor Giorgio Ganis (Giorgio Ganis), Head of the Laboratory of radiology at Harvard, found that when subjects were lying, brain scans showed increased activity in their frontal lobes (in the ventrolateral and medial parts of the region in pre-frontal cortex).

Then the experiment participants learned simple way to outwit the machine: they were slightly moving the index and middle fingers on his left arm and left leg toe whenever there are three dates that had no value for the experiment. This trick has led to the focus on the dates which the subject was not easy to outwit the MRI scanner using simple tricks need to "hide", and false information could hide. A simple trick could reduce the accuracy of lie detection system in 33%, thereby greatly complicating the examination.

How to make a more accurate lie detector? "This is the million dollar question - said Professor Ganis. - You can display information quickly or make the task so complex that people will have no additional resources for the gimmicks. But to solve the problem as such require further research on the subject. "

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A team led by Gerrit Kemerink of Maastricht University Medical Center, the Netherlands, compared the X-ray machine in 1895 with modern and found that the amount of radiation to which man is exposed during the scanning of the old machine in 1.5 thousand times greater than during a scan today, reports BBC News. The findings are published in the journal Radiology.

The first X-ray machine was developed by the director of HJ Hoffmans and Lambertus Theodorus van Kleef, director of the hospital in Maastricht. After Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays and published a report on his findings, and van Kleef Hoffmans built a device from the parts were in school and used it to experiment, producing an image of anatomy of people. From the moment the car stopped using, it was stored in the warehouse and was ejected from there only last year for filming in the historical transmission. Scientists decided to make a comparison of the first machine with those used today. However, to not risk the health of the subjects, as the experimental facility used corpse. The image of an old car was more diffuse compared to modern vehicles.

MRI Technologist Medical School, Boston University, is dedicated to the study of fruit and vegetables by MRI. Animated GIF-pictures of him - as frequent guests on the entertainment Web resources, and quite a science. Recently, he was fascinated by all kinds of exotics such as lotus root and bamboo shoots, but the most interesting - it is just familiar watermelons, melons, etc., that can be easilybought on the market.



Watermelon

Pumpkin

Feelings of love dull pain by acting on the relevant parts of the brain, say U.S. researchers from the University of California.

Scientists conducted the study, which was attended by 17 women who were in long-term romantic relationships. All participants received the experimental electric shocks while in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At the same time they alternately showed pictures of their partners, strangers and inanimate objects. Women need to be assessed pain on a 20-point scale. It turned out that women are the least pain experienced when receiving level, looking at a photograph of his partner.

The analysis made ​​by the tomograms showed that the activation of these discharges, pain centers in the brain is partially suppressed by increased activity of the brain region responsible for feeling of security. In addition, when women looked at the photo partner, they have decreased activity in the brain, which are formed in stress response.

Experts stressed that the observed effects were stronger, longer and closer relationships were. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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Researchers found that the brains of infants are much more receptive to the voices and emotions than it previously thought.

Experiments have shown that even in sleep, infants distinguish human speech from other sounds, as well as the perceived emotional that they hear, according to CNews. It is expressed in various activity areas of the brain.

Children are born with is still very immature gray matter. In the first years of life it continues to take shape and becomes "complete" form only with puberty.

"Our results suggest that the temporal cortex of infants is much more mature than previously thought," - says Evelyn Merkur, who led the study. "Human speech - a very important social signal, and this is probably the reason for the early specialization of the brain for processing," - adds her colleague and co-author of an article published in Current Biology, Anna Blasi.

Study was made possible through the use of noiseless MRI scanner. The subjects were infants aged 3 to 7 months. While they slept, the researchers played the sounds of four types: emotionally neutral (coughing, sneezing), positive (laughter) and negative (crying), as well as various household sounds (the splash of water, noise) and watched as it affects the testimony of functional magnetic imaging (fMRI), reflecting the activity of certain zones of gray matter.

Found that the brain areas responsible for the processing of speech in adults and infants are activated in response to human voices. And for crying also activated areas responsible for perception of emotional stimuli. Various household as the noise does not cause particular brain activation.

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Just one sleepless night can make the brain unstable, causing a sudden gap, during which attention is turned off and the possibility of visual perception, according to publication Daily Mail.

Dr. David Dindzhes and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study and found that sleep-deprived brains spontaneously switches from wakefulness to sudden periods of impaired attention.

This is a phenomenon scientists have been compared with a voltage drop in the electrical circuit. The cause of failures in the human brain, deprived of sleep are instantaneous stopping of blood flow in certain areas of the brain, recorded by professionals MRI scanner.

The experiment was carried out brain scans from 24 people. The subjects were asked to perform simple tasks requiring high visual attention, first in the day when they get adequate sleep, and then - after a sleepless night.

Watching people, Dr. Dindzhes concluded that not enough sleep and wakefulness change the periods of inattention occur very quickly. "Imagine you're sitting in a room and watch a movie with the lights on. When the brain is stable, the light stays on all the time. But in the" sleepy "brain, the lights suddenly turned off

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Sports activities positively affect the mood of women, as well as their mental abilities in terms of information analysis and decision making. This conclusion, as reported portal Independent News, drawn by researchers from Manchester University.

Experts analyzed the effect of regular physical activity on intellectual and emotionalstatus of women. It was found that immediately after exercising the experiment participants did not feel very good because of rapid breathing and pulse. But some women's time improves mood and feel better.

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed that after training in the brains of women active neurons that are responsible in making decisions and in the analysis of incoming information.

Intelligence test also showed that girls and women who regularly engaged in physical activity significantly outperform their peers in the mental plane.

Previously it was shown that the mood in a positive impact only training "to wear." Moderate exercise on the emotional background of a person no effect.

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New technology X-ray computed tomography, have allowed scientists to see details of the spider age 49 million years, which was stuck in a piece of amber. The results of their work, scientists in the journal Naturwissenschaften , and briefly described in a press release, University of Manchester.

Amber is a rich source of ancient remains of insects, arachnids and other medium-sized creatures. They are stuck in a sticky resin that eventually hardened, turning into a sort of sarcophagus. Most often, scientists are working with amber, found in the Baltic region - its average age is about 49 million years. In this paper, the authors studied specimens of amber from a private collection that is stored in the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Due to the fact that fragments of amber remain in contact with oxygen, its surface covered with cracks and become turbid.

Conventional methods to discern the content of these fragments was not possible, so the researchers used x-ray computed tomography, followed by computer modeling. As a result, the authors managed to recover three-dimensional image stuck in one of the fragments of amber spiders. It can be seen here.

It turned out that in ancient amber age 49 million years is a spider of the family Sparassidae , whose members today live in the tropics and in parts of southern Europe. In the past, these spiders are obviously inhabited, and the central part of Europe. Members of the family Sparassidae - a large and active spiders, so you usually do not find them stuck in amber.

Recently another group of researchers in India found a large piece of amber, which is very much insects, spiders and other arthropods. Age finds about 50 million years.

It turned out to princess who lived in ancient Egypt thousands of years ago, 3.5

Scientists believe that the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh or a rich nobleman is the first court, at least, now known science man with a heart condition. If the Princess had lived now, she would have to be mandatory to do bypass surgery. Scanning the mummy shows that it strongly hardened and narrowed arteries artery leading to the heart, brain, stomach and legs.

Doctors from the University of California, specializing in cardiovascular diseases, together with colleagues from Cairo's al-Azhar University analyzed 55 mummies that are stored in the National Museum of Ancient History in Cairo. Computed tomography has found traces of the thickening and hardening of the arteries in almost half of the scanned mummies, but it hurt my heart was a princess Amos Merer-Amon, who lived in the area of ​​Luxor in 1580 BC and died at the age of 40 years. The cause of atherosclerosis

Princess is unclear, because it was fed to a healthier and more nutritious food than they do now - fruits, vegetables and fish, which then abounded in the Nile, and certainly led an active life.

Discovery scientists is very important. It shows that it appears that not only benefits of modern civilization contain a threat to the human body. Although, of course, emphasize the researchers, this does not mean that on the basis of the opening should abandon healthy eating and active living.

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