At last we can see ourselves thinking, using the technique known as functional brain imaging (fMRI). Some of the exciting developments in this field were described in a series of papers presented today at the British Psychological Society's Centenary Annual Conference held in Glasgow, Scotland.Dr. Adrian Owen of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, has been using functional neuroimaging to unravel how the human brain deals with the complexity of human memory.
By scanning healthy volunteers while they carry out tests of memory and learning, it is possible to detect "hot spots" of increased activity that signify which areas of the brain are making the greatest contributions to the tasks.
The biggest advances in the field are in understanding how we manage our memories. The results of this work are helping us to understand how memory is affected by normal aging, by drugs and by disease.
Dr. Francesca Happe, of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, described how the use of brain imaging helps us understand our ability to lie, to deceive and to outwit others.
For example, we understand the jokes in Frasier because we understand what it is that he thinks she wants him to think, without it having to be spelled out to us.
People who can't do this, such as those with autism, take things so literally that if told to "stick your coat down anywhere" they may ask for the glue. Scanning healthy volunteers and those with autism may uncover the brain regions involved in "reading minds."
Dr. Robin Morris of the Institute of Psychiatry, London, showed how virtual reality combined with fMRI scanning illustrates how the brain represents space and navigates us through the world.
FMRI scanning has also shown clearly that the brain has the capability to reorganize itself following early damage. For many years it had been thought that there was only limited opportunity for this to happen, making this a very exciting new area.
29-Mar-2001
