August 12, 2006
Get your brain scanned:
London's Hammersmith Hospital want to borrow your brain - for about an hour and a half. They are building a medical database of healthy MRI brain scans to allow more accurate comparisons when assessing people with psychiatric or neurological problems.
They have a had a number of volunteers already, but are still looking for volunteers in all age ranges except females under 30.
So if you've never experienced mental or neurological illness, and you're a male aged between 18 and 90, or a female aged 30 to 90 and want to see what it's like to get your brain scanned, now's your chance.
According to the researchers, the MRI scan itself takes about 45 minutes to an hour, and involves no radiation, no injections and doesn't require you to do any preparation before the scan. You'll be asked to fill out brief medical and safety questionnaires, so the total visit usually takes about 90 minutes.
If you're interested, contact the project co-ordinator Dulcie Rodrigues at The Robert Steiner MRI Unit at Hammersmith Hospital. Tel: 020 8383 3298, or email her on dulcie.rodrigues [at] csc.mrc.ac.uk
