YOUTUBE, ZEUS CHIRIPANeuroscientists have used blood oxygen level–dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) for years, but aren’t exactly sure what the brain scans pick up. Is it neuronal firing tied to blood flow? Something else?
“This means that if BOLD shows you a large blob of activity, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all the neurons in that region are spiking,” David Attwell of University College London who helped organized a recent meeting on BOLD told The Scientist. “So what we really need to know is how neurons are influencing blood flow.”
“There’s this idea that if we can link BOLD to neuronal activity—that would be nirvana,” said Bojana Stefanovic of Toronto’s Sunnybrook Research Institute. “Clinicians, however, are looking for measures with a clear link to symptoms. And, fortunately, there is no shortage of disease effects BOLD can sense.”
WIKIMEDIA, CCOSTELLA team led by investigators at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has identified oligosaccharides from mammalian breast milk that seem to support a web of gut microbes that in turn bolster infant growth. The group’s results were published in Cell this week (February 18).
