X-Message-Number: 3309
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
From:   (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: Brain scanning, answer to B. Wowk
Message-ID: <>

References: <> <384t9v$>
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 1994 14:00:42 GMT


In article <384t9v$>  (Brian 
Wowk) writes:
>
>
>	Yes, MRI microscopy is an established field.  It works by 
>using rf coils that are hundreds of times smaller than the coil 
>required to image an intact brain.  Such small coils only receive 
>noise from their immediate neighborhood instead of the entire 
>brain (the brain being a million times larger, giving a million times 
>more noise).  In theory you could image an intact brain with 
>micron resolution using MRI-- if you used nanomachines to 
>strategically position thousands of tiny rf coils with microscopic 
>preamplifiers and (multiplexed?) connecting wires throughout the 
>brain.  Instead of connecting wires you could use on-site 
>nanocomputers to acquire and process signal data.  However, as 
>you can see once again, we are now many decades into the future.
>
>			--- Brian Wowk   

Good.  This is very important!  Can you estimate the required
geometry. For example, what resolution could we get with needle probes that
have, say, 200 micron diameters that are inserted in a grip with 1 cm.
spacing. I can imagine being able to do this in the not-too-far future
with negligable brain damage.  That is, unless you do it a hundred or
so times.  We'd have to insert the probes without causing serious
microhemmorhages, of course -- but if the probes were active during
insertion, they could be made to avoid all significant blood vessels.

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