FOR the first time it is possible to watch as nerve cells start firing in synchrony – an activity thought to be the key to many brain processes.
“This is a totally new way of looking at the brain,” says Frank Moss, director of the Center for Neurodynamics at the University of Missouri at St Louis. “In my mind, it’s a revolutionary advance.”
The well-known technique of magnetic resonance imaging measures blood flow rather than nerve activity, and takes a second or so to build up an image of the brain. An alternative technique known as magnetoencephalography measures the magnetic fields…
