Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Reading the brain: When did you have that thought?

Professor Gary Green

York Neuroimaging Centre

Report
by Ken Hutson
Advances in the science of neural imaging are leading to a better understanding of brain disorders such as epilepsy and dementia, with the ultimate objective of finding cures. With epilepsy, a driving force behind all this is to facilitate better decision-making and maybe avoiding some of the brutal surgery undertaken now.
MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanning shows the brain electronically in slices, but a more powerful and accurate technology MEG (magnetoencephalography) has now been devised. The MEG scanner can read brain activity from the magnetic field around the head.
The eminent neurologist, John Hughling Jackson, was born near Harrogate in 1835. Using clinical observation and deductive logic, Jackson developed a theory about the spread of a seizure within the motor cortex which sequentially affects different areas of the body, known since as the Jacksonian March. This theory is now proved correct by observations of this movement using the MEG scanner.