Looking Into Your Brain Just Became Easier

Looking Into Your Brain Just Became Easier

Researchers and engineers keep improving the machines that help doctors better understand and diagnose conditions that affect our brains. One of the goals is to find causes of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, which affect millions of people throughout the world.

Since the 1980s, doctors have used Magnetic Resonance¹ Imaging machines, or MRI scanners, to look into patients’ bodies without exposing them to the harmful effects of X-rays.

An alternating magnetic field created inside the MRI's tube excites hydrogen atoms in the body’s tissues, making them emit radio waves. Those waves can be turned into pictures, similar to X-ray images.

The magnet of a new MRI, built by Siemens, has 7 tesla units, making it more than 100,000 (7/0.000065 = 107,692) times more powerful than the earth’s magnetic field.

“Using something like 7-tesla imaging, you can do very high resolution imaging, you can get the contrast that you need in order to identify the particular sub-parts of the nuclei² that you need,” said Peter Jezzard, a professor of neuroimaging.

But even high-resolution two-dimensional black-and-white pictures are quite different from three-dimensional color renditions that can be viewed from all angles.

Using MRI-generated images of water molecules³ moving within the brain’s white matter, scientists at the British company Holoxica created a hologram showing the connections between neurons.

“The brain is such a complex three-dimensional structure, and sometimes it is quite difficult to describe, or understand, the actual connections," said neurosurgeon Basil Ridha. "So to see it in 3-D, that may be a short cut to education, and it can reinforce the learning process.”

The holographic display is still in prototype phase, but researchers say, once ready for production, it will be compatible not only with MRI machines but also with CT and ultrasound scanners.

1 resonance   

n.洪亮；共鸣；共振

参考例句：

• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
• The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。

2 nuclei   

n.核

参考例句：

• To free electrons, something has to make them whirl fast enough to break away from their nuclei. 为了释放电子，必须使电子高速旋转而足以摆脱原子核的束缚。
• Energy is released by the fission of atomic nuclei. 能量是由原子核分裂释放出来的。

3 molecules   

分子( molecule的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The structure of molecules can be seen under an electron microscope. 分子的结构可在电子显微镜下观察到。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules. 在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。