The concept I choose to look at from the lectures was the topic of MRIs. Magnetic Resonance Imaging also known as an MRI, is one of the noninvasive ways to look at the brain and other soft tissues such as the lungs, and heart. The image of the brain created by an MRI allows doctors and scientist to see the brain, almost as if it were in real life. An MRI has excellent spatial resolution (millimeters) which means that the image is very clear and therefore the ability to localize the region where something is coming from is easy. In terms of looking at the brain, this makes the MRI machine very useful for detecting tumors and anomalies in the brain.
The MRI is different from an fMRI however. A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is used to study the cognitive activity in the brain. The fMRI works by studying oxygenized and deoxygenized hemoglobin since when you are thinking (using a certain region of the brain) it requires more oxygen. A large difference between the two machines is that the MRI is able to find abnormalities in the tissue of the brain whereas fMRI is able to spot abnormalities in the brain’s activity.
Here is an example of the images that the MRI produces of the brain, so that you are able to see clarity and images that it produces.
Understanding what an MRI is and what it is used for has helped me understand why my mom had to use an MRI when she was having severe headaches. Around 2 years ago my mom started having random headaches that caused her an immense amount of pain. The headaches were in her temporal lobe (behind her right ear). The doctors she was seeing were concerned that she was having an aneurism, so they decided to give her an MRI to look at her blood vessels. Luckily, they did not find anything in the MRI. Through learning about MRI’s in psychology 100, I now understand that they used an MRI because it was able to give them a realistic picture of the blood vessels in my mom’s brain because they are soft tissues and therefore will show up on an MRI. Also, since the MRI has a good spatial resolution it would be easy for the doctors to find the specific location if there was an aneurism in her brain.
References
Bansal, Devika. (2017). Genetics, Altered Brain Structure Off Window into Autism Severity. Retrieved from www.ucsf.edu/news/2017/08/407986/genetics-altered-brain-structure-offer-window-autism-severity.
Lam, P. (2018, July 24). What to know about MRI scans. Medical News Today. Retrieved from www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/146309.php.
I am very glad to hear that your mother did not end up having an aneurism! I have had a personal experience with an MRI that is related to your story. I had a special type of MRI called an MRI Arthrogram. The main difference between a normal MRI and an Arthrogram is a radiologist will inject a special fluid into a particular area to get a better picture by showing more of a contrast with the soft tissue/bone. I had this procedure done on my hip because I was having excruciating hip pain with no discernable cause that was found by X-rays. The fluid was injected into my hip socket and because of the contrast, the radiologists and doctors were able to see that I had bone fragmentation happening in my socket, leading to tearing of some of the surrounding tissue and causing the pain. This procedure will lead to my surgery and hopefully to a less-painful future! If you’re interested, the link below shows a picture of what an MRI Arthrogram looks like! This isn’t my injury, but the picture offers an interesting perspective on this technique.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/MRI-arthrogram-of-the-hip-demonstrating-a-small-superior-labral-tear_fig91_226054375