Diagnosing PTSD by visualizing magnetic activity in brain
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after a person has been exposed to a traumatic event. In the past it has gone by such names as shell shock, and battle fatigue because many times it affects soldiers that have undergone physical and psychological trauma on the battlefield. It is not limited to just soldiers, as civilians may also experience PTSD.
Apostolos Georgopoulos, at the University of Minnesota in the United States, has developed a one minute test that can diagnose PTSD with an accuracy of 90%. The test involves magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings. MEG measures the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain, and then visualizes it. From the BBC article:
The test measures the tiny magnetic fluctuations that occur as groups of neurons fire in synchrony, even when subjects are not thinking of anything.
These “synchronous neural interactions” have already been shown to distinguish signals from subjects with a range of disorders including Alzheimer’s.
Subjects who underwent the study were placed within an electromagnetically shielded chamber. They then fixed their vision on a spot 65 cm in from of them for one minute. This allowed researchers to monitor the subjects brain while at rest. Seventy-four of the subjects were military veterans who had PTSD, while 250 of the subjects were civilians. Researchers noted that PTSD patients had a different brain patterns than the healthy volunteers.
The paper may be found on-line for free for the next 30 days at the Journal of Neural Engineering. You will need to create a free account to access the paper.
via BBC : Magnetic activity in brain ‘diagnoses stress disorder’
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