Monday, October 12, 2009

What's on your mind, Mr.Turtle?

A neurophysiology study straight out of a science fiction novel:

In this study, we used a bloodless and intact turtle brain to explore the feasibility of detecting visually-evoked ncMRI signal. After being surgically removed from the cranium and placed in artificial cerebral spinal fluid (aCSF), the turtle brain (with eyes attached) is able to generate essentially normal electrophysiological activity in response to visual stimulation ([Kriegstein, 1987] and [Fan et al., 1993]).

The researchers didn't find much, but the method they used looks really impressive. It would be a great experiment to run in a high school bio class. Students could actually see how the brain works.


tags: education, detection, representation, science, biology, brain
 

reference: Physiologically evoked neuronal current MRI in a bloodless turtle brain: Detectable or not? doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.06.017 

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