Two Indian scientists wielded sophisticated mathematics to dissect and analyse the traditional meditation chanting sound “OM”. The OM team published a series of monographs in academic journals. These plumb certain acoustic subtleties of Om, which these researchers say is “the divine sound”. For a little about that, see our small report, in 2010, on the repetitive physics of OM. Now, […]
Tag: fMRI
Playing a cello (inside an MRI scanner)
Performing a quasi-real-time fMRI scan of a performing cellist presents considerable problems to researchers. Aside from the extreme lack of space, if the cello had any metallic components it could present a danger anywhere near the über magnets of an operational MRI machine. Such considerations have prompted a research team from the Input Devices and […]
A metaphor for fMRI studies of thought?
A new study contains a poetical phrase that maybe, just maybe, is a metaphor for the severe difficulty and beauty of a great scientific quest: learning how the heck the brain manages to think. Many brain scientists use a complex technology called “fMRI” (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to make rough pictures of activity (many sorts of […]
Childish: 2nd-hand looks at brain activity
Some brain scientists use their brains to explain how they think other people’s brains are used. They also use (in addition to their brains) fMRI [functional magnetic resonance imaging], a technique in which complex equipment measures some of the things that happen inside a brain while a person is using that brain. (NOTE: the technique has […]