Packing on the pounds may increase your body mass index, but it won't increase brain volume, according to a new MRI study. Although the human brain inevitably shrinks as it ages, researchers have found that the brains of obese subjects appear 10 years older at middle age than their fitter counterparts. The UK study, entitled [...]
A Canadian MRI study has found similarities in the brain scans of children with autism, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and ADHD. The team of Toronto researchers imaged the white matter of 200 young participants in the landmark study. Up until now, autism, OCD and ADHD have been classified and studied as three separate disorders, despite [...]
You're not hungry, you're thirsty. It's almost too easy: dieters everywhere have heard this advice for decades, but now it's been backed up by MRI science. The study, conducted by Wageningen University in the Netherlands, worked with 19 participants to collect the data. Done in three parts, the research looked at MRI scans of the stomach, [...]
Few diseases are stigmatized as much as schizophrenia, or other similar mental health illnesses. But things are looking up: according to new MRI research, brains afflicted with schizophrenia show an ability to identify and fight off the disease. The study, entitled Dynamic cerebral reorganization in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia: a MRI-derived cortical thickness study, was [...]
While it comes as no surprise that MRI scans reveal powerful activity in infants' brains upon hearing the voices of their mothers, scientists were looking for more specific information. “Many of our social, language and emotional processes are learned by listening to our mom's voice,” said study author Daniel Abrams. “But surprisingly little is known about how the [...]
Another brain fMRI study, another step closer to mind reading! Researchers from Berkeley have mapped out a "semantic atlas"--that is, an interactive map of which words activate what areas of the brain. The study, Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex, has just been published in Nature. Check out the video below to learn [...]
In the 1950s and 60s, researchers at the forefront of neuroscience and psychology experimented with LSD for PTSD and depression. Despite the positive effects of treatments (which came in small doses in controlled environments) the drug and corresponding research on its therapeutic benefits were banned in North America in the late sixties. Newly published research which used MRI for [...]
Although it can't claim to have found out what causes those sleepless nights, a new MRI study has shed some light on the mysterious common sleeping disorder known as insomnia. For the study, published recently in the Radiology journal, researchers based in Guangzhou, China, scanned the brains of 23 clinical insomniacs (patients whose restless sleeping habits [...]
To ride the elevator or climb the stairs may not seem like an important decision, but when it's a decision you make every day it could have lasting implications on not only your physical fitness, but your cognitive function as well. A new Canadian MRI study from researchers at Concordia University has found that younger-looking [...]
Over the next several months AIM will be providing imaging for a major cross-country MRI research study that seeks to illustrate patterns in heart and brain health of Canadians from coast to coast. The Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds, or CAHHM, will study the MRI results of approximately 9700 participants of varying ages, backgrounds [...]