Ok, tossing this out to see if anyone has a logical translation for me:
I was the subject (supposedly the control subject) in a number of MRI and fMRI scanning experiments in my mid-40s. I was told that, at the time, I "had a very young-looking brain - not what they would have expected of someone my age." I was assured that it was healthy, no obvious problems with it, nothing seeming to be out-of-the-ordinary, just that it was "very young-looking for my age."
Now, not being a neurobiologist, I have NO clue what, exactly, they meant. Obviously it was not something bad. But can neurobiologists actually guess a person's age by the condition of their brain in such scans? Or were they joking?
Also, has anyone ever had MRIs and felt like they came out of them in a better mood than before they went in? I could be imagining it, but a few times I was a little depressed prior to the scan and was feeling markedly better afterwards. Might just be some sort of placebo effect, but, who knows?
27 Nov 2008, 9:45 pm
