Combining several new techniques, researchers applied fast fMRI in an effort to track neuronal networks that control human thought processes, and found that they could now measure rapidly oscillating brain activity.
The researchers used fast fMRI in human volunteers observing a rapidly fluctuating checkerboard pattern.
The fast fMRI was able to detect the subtle and very rapid oscillations in cerebral blood flow in the brain’s visual cortex as the volunteers observed the changing pattern.
“The oscillating checkerboard pattern is a more “naturalistic” stimulus, in that its timing is similar to the very subtle neural oscillations made during normal thought processes,” said Jonathan R Polimeni of Massachusetts General Hospital in the US.
“The fast fMRI detects the induced neural oscillations that allow the brain to understand what the eye is observing – the changing checkerboard pattern,” said Polimeni.
“These subtle oscillations were completely undetectable with standard fMRI. This exciting result opens the possibility of using fast fMRI to image neural networks as they guide the process of human thought,” he said.
From Agencies, Feature image courtesy pininterest
