Brain scanner for astronauts passes 'vomit comet' test.Byline: ANI London, July 3 (ANI): A gadget that could sneak a glimpse inside an astronaut's brain has passed the 'vomit comet' test, which means the device can be calibrated cal·i·brate tr.v. cal·i·brat·ed, cal·i·brat·ing, cal·i·brates 1. To check, adjust, or determine by comparison with a standard (the graduations of a quantitative measuring instrument): to measure blood flow in zero gravity. According to a report in New Scientist, Gary Strangman, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital Health care The major teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, widely regarded as one of the best health care centers in the world in Boston, is leading development of the non-invasive scanner, which fires weak pulses of near-infrared light into the brain, then reads back what's reflected. Called near-infrared optical spectroscopy, the approach equates changes in blood flow to brain activity, much like a functional MRI functional MRI Fast MRI Imaging A brain imaging technique that measures ↑ blood flow–BF which, like PET, relies on changes in BF and oxygenation due to brain activity; aerobic metabolism in some neurons creates a local ↑ in deoxyHb, which triggers scanner. Aboard a mission, the device could help explain why astronauts sometimes suffer from depression, as well as provide an objective gauge of an astronaut's mental state. The scanner has already garnered 400,000 dollars in NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. funding, but to receive more - and eventually, make it aboard a space mission, it must first pass a series of technological hurdles. In June, researchers tested the device in Florida on an aircraft that achieves periods of weightlessness weightlessness, the absence of any observable effects of gravitation. This condition is experienced by an observer when he and his immediate surroundings are allowed to move freely in the local gravitational field. by flying in steep parabolas. The flight showed the device works outside controlled lab settings, and crucially, that it works in weightlessness. That's important, because without gravity to pull it down and out of the brain, blood tends to pool inside the brain. That could potentially confound any technique that relies on measuring minute changes in blood flow. "We may no longer be able to see what we see with gravity on Earth pulling all that blood out of our head," Strangman told New Scientist. The 'vomit comet' flight revealed that the device can be calibrated to measure blood flow in zero gravity, confirming previous tests in Strangman's Boston laboratory that simulated microgravity mi·cro·grav·i·ty n. 1. An environment in which there is very little net gravitational force, as of a free-falling object, an orbit, or interstellar space. 2. conditions by laying volunteers on a table that tilts downwards by a few degrees. "We may not have to do every experiment from here on out in a parabolic par·a·bol·ic also par·a·bol·i·cal adj. 1. Of or similar to a parable. 2. Of or having the form of a parabola or paraboloid. flight," said Strangman. "We can use something a little bit simpler and little bit less expensive than a 5000 dollars flight to simulate weightlessness," he added. However, he isn't ruling out further tests aboard the vomit comet, and he might even serve as his own guinea pig. (ANI) Copyright 2009 Asian News International The Asian News International (ANI) agency provides multimedia news to China and 50 bureaus in India. It covers virtually all of South Asia since its foundation and presently claims, on its official website, to be the leading South Asia-wide news agency. (ANI) - All Rights Reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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