NNA2 #61 dives into MRIs and what we can and cannot learn about the brain with neuroscience researcher Sam Carpenter, exploring how protons are structured, inside and out, with physics grad student Nicole Lewis, and talking about why we play - or don’t play - video games with Mark Kazmierski.

Sam Carpenter – MRI: Magic Really-cool Images

We often hear in the media about some new scientific study where “brain scans reveal something interesting” But often, not a lot of effort goes into describing what is meant by a “brain scan”, how they work and what they can tell us. A common method of “brain scan” is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). I break down what an MRI is, how they work and what we can and cannot learn about the brain. 

About Sam: I am a Pennsylvania native who relocated to Portland, OR in 2010 where I started working in behavioral neuroscience research at Oregon Health & Science University. My technical experience with MRI physics via Penn State set me up to be a part of one of the largest longitudinal neuroimaging adolescent studies at the time. On the job, I learned how to code in a variety of languages, build and run image processing pipelines as well as how to talk ADHD children still for 2+ hrs in the MRI machine. I have scanned over ~1000 individuals ranging in age from 12 days to 88 years. I started in an M.S. program in Bioinformatics at OHSU in 2016 but withdraw in order to move with my spouse to Ann Arbor for a career opportunity.