I couldn’t agree more with Randi Silberman in his IEEE Spectrum Tech Talk blog, when he states his amazement at the way fMRI is used in the new Angelina Jolie movie Salt. In the movie it is suggested that fMRI is used as a lie detector without any of the current extended fMRI machinery visible anywhere near the person being interrogated. Yet, this idea may seem less far fetched in hindsight if portable MRI scanners will ever come to the market. Two years ago scientists from Ohio State University published results in MR theory that might one day allow MR scanning without a person actually having to be in the magnet, but only very close to the magnet. Yet, as long as we are not watching science fiction, it would be nice if some of the basics of neuroimaging were respected in movies and series ... My personal favorite in this respect is the way in which MR scanning is performed in the House TV series: the patient is shoved into what looks like an MR scanner but is much more like a CT scanner, with a very wide bore. Even when the head needs to be scanned it is not fixated, patients are allowed to move and talk and everyone just walks in with stethoscopes and other metal devices without any problems!
Professionally I’m interested in why certain old people age with grace whereas others suffer from cognitive problems at a relatively young age. Not only do I use neuroimaging techniques to find out how certain elderly can compensate functionally for the degradation of grey matter and the loss of white matter connectivity, but I am also interested in how we could help people put to good use the brain capacity that they still have. In my spare time I have been an amateur ballet dancer since I was 4 years old and I have always enjoyed it very much. A recent publication in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience attracted my attention because it appealed to these two interests of mine. Apparently, elderly who have practiced amateur dancing for 16.5 years on average performed much better on physical and mental activities than education-, gender- and age-matched controls who did not do any dancing or sports. The difference was due to the dancing group lacking any individuals showing poor performance, whereas these were frequently present in the control group. So it appears that dancing helps you preserve your mental and physical capacities. Another motivation to keep my ballet dancing up!
This initiative is truly one very good example of how internet can be used to benefit other people: Salman Khan has set up the Khan Academy, a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere. On his website www.khanacademy.org he provides over 1400 YouTube videos covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, biology and finance. It provides great material for high school students, but also for adults needing a mathematics or physics reminder it is highly valuable. A very admirable initiative!