Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) News and Research

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a large magnet and radio waves to look at organs and structures inside your body. Health care professionals use MRI scans to diagnose a variety of conditions, from torn ligaments to tumors. MRIs are very useful for examining the brain and spinal cord. Also called: Magnetic resonance imaging, NMR, Nuclear magnetic resonance.

Study of normal brain development

Children appear to approach adult levels of performance on many basic cognitive and motor skills by age 11 or 12, according to a new study coordinated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

18 May 2007

Fictive learning may play a role in addiction

"What might have been" or fictive learning affects the brain and plays an important role in the choices individuals make, and may play a role in addiction, said Baylor College of Medicine researchers and others in a report that appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

16 May 2007

Study provides clues about inability to imitate and empathize in autistic children

New imaging research at UCLA shows that impairments in autistic children's ability to imitate and empathize can be linked to dysfunction in the brain's mirror-neuron system.

8 May 2007

Intense trauma can have long lasting effects on the brain and behavior of healthy people without causing a clinical disorder

Exposure to trauma may create enough changes in the brain to sensitize people to overreact to an innocuous facial gesture years later, even in people who don't have a stress-related disorder, says new research.

8 May 2007

Children with autism cannot read facial expressions

When we have a conversation with someone, we not only hear what they say, we see what they say.

8 May 2007

Backup brain region compensates for stroke

Researchers have pinpointed in humans how a "backup" brain region springs into action to compensate for disruption of a primary functional area, as happens during stroke.

4 May 2007

Higher calcium and vitamin D intake linked to brain lesions in seniors

Elderly men and women who consumed higher levels of calcium and vitamin D are significantly more likely to have greater volumes of brain lesions, regions of damage that can increase risk of cognitive impairment, dementia, depression and stroke.

2 May 2007

Sleep deprivation can adversely affect a person's decision-making

Gambling is a risky activity that can potentially result in the loss of a significant amount of money.

2 May 2007

Culture can alter the brain's perceptive mechanisms

Researchers in Illinois and Singapore have found that the aging brain reflects cultural differences in the way that it processes visual information.

2 May 2007

Event structure perception

In order to comprehend the continuous stream of cacophonies and visual stimulation that battle for our attention, humans will breakdown activities into smaller, more digestible chunks, a phenomenon that psychologists describe as "event structure perception."

2 May 2007

Heavy use of cannabis triggers psychotic illnesses

Scientists in the UK say the heavy consumption of the drug cannabis may trigger psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia.

30 Apr 2007

Cortex area thinner in youth with Alzheimer's-related gene

A part of the brain first affected by Alzheimer's disease is thinner in youth with a risk gene for the disorder, a brain imaging study by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), one of the National Institutes of Health, has found.

24 Apr 2007

Neurobiologists pinpoint how brain copes with shifty eyeballs

Neurobiologists have pinpointed brain regions critical to one of the brain's more remarkable feats'piecing together a continuous view of the world by integrating snippets of visual input from constantly moving eyes.

19 Apr 2007

Internal part of prefrontal cortex identified as key structure for memory formation

Does a specific memory exist for events involving humans, French researchers from the Vulnerability, Adaptation and Psychopathology Laboratory (CNRS/Universit' Paris VI) and Canadian researchers from Douglas Hospital, McGill University (Montreal) have identified the internal part of the prefrontal cortex as the key structure for the memory formation of social information.

19 Apr 2007

North Shore-LIJ seeks participants for liver tumor and new chemo trial

The North Shore-LIJ Health System has announced it is seeking participants for a new clinical trial that will test a new chemotherapy option for patients with liver tumors.

18 Apr 2007

Scientists tackle cancer with different approaches

Studies presented at the 2007 meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research show how researchers are using the new, as well as the natural, to help design and test new drugs to treat cancer.

18 Apr 2007

Functional diffusion map measures effectiveness of treatment for prostate cancer

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have identified a new imaging technique that can measure the effectiveness of treatment for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones.

16 Apr 2007

New, potentially more accurate method for diagnosing breast cancer

By combining two techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and near-infrared optics, researchers at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School may have devised a new, potentially more accurate method for diagnosing breast cancer.

14 Apr 2007

UT ligament split tear in wrist can be fully repaired through an arthroscopically guided surgical procedure

A Mayo Clinic orthopedic surgeon has discovered a common cause of debilitating wrist pain - a split tear of the UT ligament - that can be reliably detected through a simple physical examination and can be fully repaired through an arthroscopically guided surgical procedure.

12 Apr 2007

Lithium increases gray matter in bipolar brains

Neuroscientists at UCLA have shown that lithium, long the standard treatment for bipolar disorder, increases the amount of gray matter in the brains of patients with the illness.

11 Apr 2007