.... http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/landing.cda?type=Feature&chId=3 http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cma/download.cma?imageType=RssLogo&contentType=Feature&siteId=1&chId=3 http://www.spectroscopynow.com/ http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26704&type=Feature&page=1 Children at risk of dyslexia show differences in brain activity on magnetic resonance imaging scans even before they start to learn to read, a study at the Children's Hospital Boston has found. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26631&type=Feature&page=1 Methamphetamine (MA) abusers commonly exhibit socially problematic behaviors, such as diminished empathy, decreased emotional regulation and interpersonal violence, which may be attributable to alterations in emotional experience. However, few studies have used functional MRI to examine directly the emotional experience of threatening or fearful non-face images in MA abusers. This study investigates possible differences in neural correlates of negative emotional experiences between abstinent MA abusers and healthy subjects using complex visual scenes depicting fear or threat derived from the International Affective Picture System. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26595&type=Feature&page=1 A new magnetic resonance study has linked so-called silent strokes that lead to small patches of dead brain cells with memory loss in elderly adults. The problem is thought to afflict one in four older adults with an important memory deficit. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26540&type=Feature&page=1 Brain metabolism declines with age, but cerebral blood flow (CBF) is less age dependent. We therefore hypothesized that brain temperature would decline with age, and measured the temperatures of the lateral ventricles in healthy volunteers by diffusion-weighted imaging thermometry. The mean lateral ventricular temperatures in healthyvolunteers showed a linear decrease with age, presumably caused by asynchronous declines in brain metabolism and CBF. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26433&type=Feature&page=1 Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to look at the brain activity of 35 experienced physicians from various non-surgical disciplines as they make decisions. The study shows that those physicians seen to pay most attention to failures as well as successes become more adept at deciding on the correct treatment. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26373&type=Feature&page=1 NMR is unique among imaging modalities in its ability to measure metabolic pathways in real time. However, the use of <sup>13</sup>C MRI in vivo has been limited because of the low signal-to-noise ratios of metabolites. Recent strides in polarization technology and in the use of external nuclear polarization to realize a many-fold increase in the signal from biologically useful compounds have the potential to expand dramatically the applications of <sup>13</sup>C for real-time metabolic imaging. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26316&type=Feature&page=1 Atherosclerosis - the potentially lethal accumulation of fatty deposits in the walls of one's arteries - is commonly thought of as a disorder associated with old age. However, an MRI study by the Heart and Stroke Foundation that measured fat distribution more precisely than before reveals that young people are also susceptible to the disorder. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26313&type=Feature&page=1 Even at this early stage of development, it is clear that the imaging of hyperpolarized <sup>13</sup>C-enriched molecules and their metabolic products offers a new approach to the study of the physiology and disease of the heart. This paper has been taken from the recently published special issue of <I>NMR in Biomedicine</I> entitled, "Polarised Carbon-13 Technology and its Application to Biomedical Imaging". http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26207&type=Feature&page=1 Computational models of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging has allowed researchers to reconstruct moving images from the blood flow in the visual cortex of volunteers as they watch a video clip. Fancifully, the technique might one day allow one to "record" one's dreams or to visualise what a patient in a chronic vegetative state or coma might be seeing and so perhaps open up a way to communicate with such patients. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26191&type=Feature&page=1 An exact estimation of the postmortem interval based on the corpse's core temperature is limited to about 48h postmortem. This study investigated decomposing sheep brain at different ambient temperatures between 4 and 26°C using single-voxel 1H MRS in 18 sheep heads. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26056&type=Feature&page=1 A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in the US shows that our memories seem to work more effectively when our brains are prepared to absorb new information. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=26078&type=Feature&page=1 Denervated muscles show high signal intensities in short tau inversion recovery (STIR) sequences. However, in severe forearm trauma, signals of nondenervated hand muscles may also be increased by wound edema, thus masking denervation. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of wound edema on muscle signal intensity in the year after trauma. Image intensities of nondenervated muscle were increased on the trauma side at 1 and 3 months and normalized thereafter. In the contralateral hand, no significant signal changes were seen. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25951&type=Feature&page=1 Ghrelin, a naturally occurring gut hormone, increases our willingness to pay for food, while simultaneously decreasing our willingness to pay for non-food items, according to researchers who have tracked behaviour linked to the hormone with functional MRI. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25915&type=Feature&page=1 In this article, recently published in <I>Magnetic Resonance in Medicine</I>, the authors review all the major recent advances in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) since 2000, including sophisticated nontensor models, 3D reconstruction technologies and data acquisition techniques. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25784&type=Feature&page=1 Youthful character traits, such as impulsiveness, are often considered amusing until they lead to juvenile delinquency and youth criminality. Now, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brains of young offenders, of both impulsive and non-impulsive character hints at activity in a particular brain structure as being associated more commonly with the negative aspects of this personality trait. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25777&type=Feature&page=1 1H MR signal intensities of creatine, myoinositol and choline compounds are increased in brain tissue of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Although there is a concomitant increase in phosphorylated creatine, no corresponding changes are found for the sum of the phosphorylated choline compounds. The authors conclude that the pathological changes in total creatine in MS are not related to energy metabolism, but astrogliosis. The origin of this residual choline fraction {[total choline]-([phosphocholine]+[glycerophosphocholine])} remains to be investigated. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25576&type=Feature&page=1 Increased physical activity involving aerobic exercise might slow age-related decline according to a new functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation study. The study shows how the brain's motor cortex changes as we get older particularly in those people who become more sedentary as they do so. However, maintaining a physically active lifestyle can preclude the changes that lead to unnecessary decline. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25585&type=Feature&page=1 Neural networks of elite archers are more focused and efficiently organised than those of nonarchers, and require less energy to execute. Therefore, the relative economy of motor planning at the level of central neural programmes in the skilled group could contribute to a greater consistency of the involved cognitive and motor processes over a much wider range of stressful environments, such as competing at the Olympic Games. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25356&type=Feature&page=1 Buddhists are different from other people, at least when they meditate on an important decision. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that specific regions of the meditating brain become active when confronted with an ethical decision but that these are different from the brain regions apparently active in people of a less Zen disposition attempting to make the same decision. http://www.spectroscopyNOW.com/coi/cda/detail.cda?chId=3&id=25211&type=Feature&page=1 A magnetic resonance imaging study reduces the weight of earlier experiments that correlate a high breast volume with visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and a risk of type 2 diabetes.