Brain imaging, one method at a time

NeuroLightbox

For students of medicine and neuroscience. See how each scanner works, then read its scans on a real brain.

One brain.A single healthy adult, scanned 27 times and averaged for a clean picture, then aligned to MNI space, the shared map neuroscientists use.

Many ways to see it.Each method passes a different kind of energy through the head and measures what comes out.

MRIHydrogen nuclei in water and fat show soft tissue in fine detail.

CTX-rays show bone and fresh blood within seconds.

PETA radioactive glucose tracer shows which regions use the most energy.

Diffusion MRIWater moving along nerve fibres shows the direction of white-matter tracts.

fMRIOxygen-rich blood reaching active cortex shows where the brain is working.

Choose a method.Each tab starts with how the machine works and ends with its scans.

Loading the brain

Nine methods

Choose how to look

Structural methods show what the brain is made of. Functional methods show what it is doing. Each card opens a short walk through the machine.

Where each method sitsFiner detail is lower down. Faster timing is further left. Both axes are logarithmic.

Brain Lab

Stimulate and dissect a brain

Touch the cortex and watch the body move or feel. Pull the lobes apart and cut through the brain like an anatomy section.