Brain Imaging Lab

Please be sure to follow the instructions closely and hand in the correct materials.

First, familiarize yourself with some general procedures associated with brain scanning and learn about some of the precautions that must be taken. To do this, play the MRI game from the Nobel Prize website.This is a fun and easy game--try playing it a few times through to learn about different limitations of MRI scanning.

Then, you will visit a web site that presents information from various types of brain scans about a number of disorders. The goal is to familiarize yourself with the kinds of information that such scans can yield about the brain, and more generally, to have a chance to explore an interesting site that presents a rich variety of information about the brain. To do this you will read the introduction here (first page only). Next, spend some time experimenting with the help page. Then, go to this page and pick one disorder that is of interest to you and examine brain scans (any of them) and the descriptions of the clinical case histories for them. A link to the description of the clinical case histories can be found at the bottom of the page on which you see the brain scan for a particular disorder. Finally, spend some time examining brain scans of "normal" brains.

Activities:

What to turn in:

• a print-out of the "clinical description"
• a brief paragraph explaining the differences you noted between scans of normal brains and  scans of your chosen disorder. 

Other Related Links:

• Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon
• Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the University of PittsburghMedicalCenter
• FIASCO at Carnegie Mellon
• Whole Brain Atlas at Harvard
• SPM at London
• Brain Functions and Map

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