Free Republic

A man who had appeared to have been in a vegetative state for 12 years knew his name and knew where he was, Canadian researchers report in a study showing it’s possible to use MRI brain scans to establish communication with people who seem completely unconscious. Three people tested using a special form of MRI called functional magnetic resonance imaging were able to answer simple “yes” or “no” questions, the team at Western University in London, Ontario report. They say their findings don’t mean everyone in a coma or a persistent vegetative state is conscious, but it should help doctors...

One of the most popular and widely accepted theories on the cause of autism spectrum disorders attributes the condition to disrupted connectivity between different regions of the brain. This 'connectivity hypothesis' claims that the social and cognitive abnormalities in people with autism can be explained by a dearth of connections between distant regions of the brain1. Some flavours of this theory also predict more connections between nearby brain regions. Recent studies, however, have found that when a person moves their head while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) |[mdash]| a method that maps how different neuroanatomical structures of the brain...

Humans create memories of locations in physical or virtual space as they move around – and it all shows up on brain scans. Researchers tracked brain activity related to "spatial memory" as volunteers moved about inside a virtual reality setup. Their new study challenges previous scientific thinking by showing that memories are recorded in regular patterns. "Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment," said Eleanor Maguire, a neuroscientist at the University College London in the U.K. "In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories."

SAN DIEGO - Applying some of the same brain-scan technology used to understand Alzheimer’s and autism, scientists are trying to learn what makes a Republican’s mind different from a Democrat’s. Brain scanning is moving rapidly beyond diseases to measuring how we react to religious experiences, racial prejudice, even Coke versus Pepsi. This election season, some scientists are trying to find out whether the technology can help political consultants get inside voters’ heads more effectively than focus groups or polls. Already, the scientists are predicting that brain scanning — known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI — will be a...