Home Uncategorized IIT alumnus unveils cells that make brain imaging IIT alumnus unveils cells that make brain imaging November 14th, 2009 admin An IIT-Kanpur alumnus, currently associated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says that he and his colleagues have unravelled the mystery as to what makes non-invasive brain scans possible.
Mriganka Sur,Replica Handbags, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience and head of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT,fake watches, has revealed that star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are key to the working of imaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET).
Such techniques have transformed neuroscience by providing colourful maps of brain activity in living subjects. The scans?reds, oranges, yellows and blues represent changes in blood flow and volume triggered by neural activity.
Sur points out that no one knew exactly why this worked until the latest MIT study was out.
?hy blood flow is linked to neuronal activity has been a mystery. Previously,fake rolex, people have argued that the fMRI signal reports local field potentials or waves of iing electrical activity, but neurons do not connect directly to blood vessels. A causal link between neuronal activity and blood flow has never been shown,?said Sur,marc jacobs handbags, who is a co-author on the study reported in the journal Science.
Astrocytes are the mostmon type of glia cells in the brain,Chanel Handbags,chanel handbags, and they extend their branching tendrils both around synapses through which neuronsmunicate, and along blood vessels.
Sur and his colleagues used a cutting-edge technique in their study, and found that astrocytes receive signals directly from neurons and provide their own neuron-like responses to directly regulate blood flow.
He said that astrocytes are the missing link between neurons and blood vessels, and that fMRI does not work when astrocytes are shut down.
?strocytes are implicated in many brain disorders and express a very large number of genes that are in the brain. Their role is crucial for understanding brain dysfunction as well as for developing potential therapeutics,?Sur said.
thaindian/newsportal/health/iit-alumnus-unveils-cells-that-make-brain-imaging-possible_10062223
More : thaindian
Posted in Replica Rolex | Comments Off