Main description:

It is now possible to witness human brain activity while we are talking, reading, or thinking, thanks to revolutionary neuroimaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These groundbreaking advances have opened infinite fields of investigation-into such areas as musical perception, brain development in utero, and faulty brain connections leading to psychiatric disorders-and have raised unprecedented ethical issues. In Looking Inside the Brain, one of the leading pioneers of the field, Denis Le Bihan, offers an engaging account of the sophisticated interdisciplinary research in physics, neuroscience, and medicine that have led to the remarkable neuroimaging methods that give us a detailed look into the human brain.

Introducing neurological anatomy and physiology, Le Bihan walks readers through the historical evolution of imaging technology-from the x-ray and CT scan to the PET scan and MRI-and he explains how neuroimaging uncovers afflictions like stroke or cancer and the workings of higher-order brain activities, such as language skills. Le Bihan also takes readers on a behind-the-scenes journey through NeuroSpin, his state-of-the-art neuroimaging laboratory, and goes over the cutting-edge scanning devices currently being developed. Considering what we see when we look at brain images, Le Bihan weighs what might be revealed about our thoughts and unconscious, and discusses how far this technology might go in the future.

Beautifully illustrated in color, Looking Inside the Brain presents the trailblazing story of the scanning techniques that provide keys to previously unimagined knowledge of our brains and our selves.

Contents:

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1Elementary Particles 4
Broca's Discoveries 5
The Birth of Modern Neuroimaging 7
The First Revolution: The X-Ray
CT Scanner 8
Nuclear Magnetism 11
The Nuclei Enter into Resonance: From NMR to MRI 13
The Anatomy of an MRI Scanner 16
The Crystal Skull 18
2The Magnetic Brain 22
The Computer at Work 22
The Brain's GPS 24
When the Brain Is Constructed 25
The Destiny of Neurons 28
Language and Cerebral Plasticity 30
Genes or Environment? 33
The Phrenology of the Brain 35
3Seeing the Brain Think 38
I Think, Therefore I Irrigate 38
Seeing the Brain with Antimatter! 39
The Glory of PET 41
Positrons on the Verge of Being Replaced by Magnetism 42
Electrons Come to the Aid of Protons 43
The Wrong Track 45
A Question of Oxygen 46
From Rats to Cats . . . Then to Humans 47
The Prowess of Functional MRI 48
Don't Think of Anything 50
Proof through Statistics 51
The Homunculus Seen in fMRI 52
The Traps of fMRI 53
The Missing "L" 54
4The Magnetic Brain in Action 56
A Cat in the Brain 57
Mental Reading 59
"When Things Are Bad, Look at Yourself in a Mirror" 62
Singing in the Brain 64
What Side Do You Speak On? 67
An Expensive Lie Detector 71
The Intimate Brain 73
Does Free Will Exist? 76
At the Doors of Awareness 78
5The Brain Probed through Water Molecules 82
Einstein's Visions 84
NMR Sensitive to Diffusion 86
From NMR to MRI: Diffusion . . . Confusion 87
Diffusion and Cancer 90
Mike's Other Discovery 93
White Matter Takes On Colors 95
An Asynchronous Brain 99
6Water: Molecule of the Mind? 104
The Firefighters Arrive a Bit Late 104
Swelling Neurons 106
Two Types of Water 109
104.5 Degrees: The Angle of Life 111
Protons Play Leapfrog 114
The Tribulations of Water in Cells 115
A Dance of Spines 118
Mechanical Neurons 121
7The Crystal Brain 125
Enter the Nanoparticles 126
Many Are Called, Few Are Chosen 129
MRI of the Extreme 133
An Exceptional Instrument for an Exceptional Organ 137
The Birth of NeuroSpin 141
Safety Above All 143
Conquering the Brain 147
In Search of a Neural Code? 150
References 153
Figure Credits 161
Index 163