Brain functioning
OUR BRAINS
How can we witness them functioning?
Until two decades ago, researchers had to perform post mortem dissections on the brains of healthy individuals and those with localized brain lesions, or selectively destroy certain parts in animal brains, or apply electrical stimuli during surgical operations, so as to figure out how brains function.
Now, a variety of imaging technologies have revolutionized brain research. Scientists can now see what happens inside someone’s brains without having to open up their skulls.
They can ask people to perform specific mental tasks, and then “watch their brains think” as they perform these tasks in real time. Progress in computer science and newly discovered forms of radiation made the development of these imaging technologies possible.
