HealthCare News
Brain Scans May Predict How People LearnFRIDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers report that brain scans can help predict how people will perform a challenging mental task, a discovery that could lead to a better understanding of how the mind learns new things. The researchers found that what they once thought was "noise" in the brain, like static from a television, actually plays a major role and "is very important for understanding how the brain does things," said study author Dr. Maurizio Corbetta, a professor of neurology at Washington University at St. Louis. This means a brain scan has the potential to act as a kind of crystal ball, he said: "One of the most exciting things we could do is look at the brain activity and do more to try to predict what the brain is going to do next." The study authors scanned the brains of 14 people -- seven men and seven women -- using functional MRI to measure bursts of activity in the brain. The researchers tracked the brains of the volunteers as they learned how to better use their peripheral vision through a computer game. Read entire article... |
