Scientists create helmet that could decipher how neurons "speak"

This 3D printed scanner has sensors that activate even if the person is moving

The brain works in mysterious ways. Although much progress has been made in the knowledge we have about it, it is such a complex organ that scientists are still looking for new ways of "reading" it. With this in mind, a group of researchers presented their latest invention: a helmet of electromagnetic sensors that will allow better neuronal diagnostics, Sputnik points out.

For decades, encephalography has been used to map what the brain does, or in other words, how neurons "speak". Through the measurement of the magnetic field generated by neurons when they interact with each other, tumors and other diseases can be diagnosed.

However, the conventional scanners used are huge and require the patient to be immobile. The particularity of this 3D printed scanner created by the team of researchers led by the physicist Richard Bowtell of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, is that it can be used by children with epilepsy, people with Parkinson's and who needs it, since their sensors they are activated even if the person is moving.

According to Nature, the new sensors capture brain signals much more intensely, since they are closer to the brain and operate at room temperature; they do not need the cold machinery that makes conventional appliances very heavy and difficult to handle.

Currently researchers are working on the design of smaller helmets that can be used by children, and even babies. Scientists hope "that this technology will be used to better understand brain cognition and evolution, to lead to the development of new and better treatments, and to diagnose diseases earlier," the publication reads.