Jessica hamzello has a better way to change your brain (
Image: Federica Rennes/Getty)
Your brain is buzzing.
Analyzing these natural vibrations may be helpful in finding tumors and other abnormalities, and now an algorithm commonly used to study earthquakes has adapted to this.
The elasticity of different parts of the body is a useful way to determine whether there is a problem.
Of course, lumps can be a sign of cancer, and stiffness of certain organs can indicate disease.
For example, an ultrasound scan that measures the elasticity of the liver can show cirrhosis.
It is difficult to measure the elasticity of the brain.
Ultrasound is not an option because it can't go through the skull.
When a part of the skull is removed during surgery, the doctor can only touch the brain directly.
"Doctors can only feel a few centimeters deep, so there is only information about the elasticity of the brain's surface," said Stefan Catheline of INSERM in Paris, France . ".
Catheline's team and other teams around the world have been working on a way to measure brain elasticity using an improved MRI scanner.
MRI usually works by measuring water content, but by modification it can be used to measure the movement of water molecules.
This allows them to pick up movement in the organization while shaking.
But Catheline says the equipment has not yet entered the clinic, in part because they are not very comfortable to use.
"It's not a pleasure," he said.
"It's also difficult to shake the entire skull with a vibrator.
"Some teams try to use vibrating tooth molds, which gives the participants a headache.
Recently, vibration pillows have been developed by some groups.
Now Catheline is trying another way.
Why not use the natural vibrations of the brain, not the shaking of the head on the body?
"We tend to think that the brain is a stationary organ, but there is a lot of movement," he said . ".
"When the blood is pumped into the brain, it creates a pulse and causes vibration.
"The idea came after he worked with the seismologist, who studied how to extract information from the sound waves produced by the earthquake.
He borrowed the algorithm that his colleagues used to analyze the vibration of the Earth and integrated it into his improved MRI scanner.
As a result, his team was able to measure the natural vibrations in the brains of two healthy volunteers-often considered "noise" information.
"This is an interesting way," said Armando Manduca of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota . ".
"There may be great value in using what is considered to be body noise, which is often considered a problem.
Neil Roberts of the University of Edinburgh, UK said: "This scan will be able to reveal more information about what is happening in the brain than a traditional MRI scan.
The water content of our cells will not change much, but the mechanical properties will.
Thus, while on MRI some brain tissues appear to be made up of the same cells, elastic imaging scans can show a huge change in stretching, hardness, or gloss.
"Being able to basically reach the inside of the brain will be more discriminatory than conventional MRI," he said . ".
"It opens up a rich world for research and diagnosis.
Catheline hopes his technology will eventually help doctors diagnose the disease and monitor the success of the treatment.
For example, plaques found in some forms of dementia are more resilient than normal brain tissue-and these differences may be detected by this new technology.
The first clinical application, according to Manduca, may be to evaluate the hardness of existing tumors.
This may be useful before surgery, he said: While soft lumps can be sucked away quickly, hard tumors must be painstakingly removed, sometimes for a few hours.
He added that it could take a few more years for such an application.
Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10. 1073/pnas.