Scanning teenagers

I spent a few informative and stimulating hours at Reading University yesterday at their school of Psychology and Neuroscience. I was attending a research session with my daughter who volunteered to undergo testing and fMRI scanning along with some of her schoolmates. 

During the experiment her brain was scanned in high-resolution (highlighting blood-flow to specific regions) whilst playing a video game. I watched proceedings from the comfort of the observation room (alongside all the computer screens). The purpose of the research is to look into how the brains of teenagers behave while being motivated (or not), and also, through the identical scanning of classmates the possibility that the brains of friend-groups are in some simple ways "synchronized" over time as they do similar things (like learning at school).

The game she played was specifically designed to stimulate certain areas of the brain (which you could see lighting-up on the screen) and especially what happened when subjects became frustrated (the game became impossibly fast after a while) and motivation tested. We also had a little talk by one of the PhD students on the team, who showed us several really cool brain-tech gizmos, one of which allowed you to control (i.e. move) virtual-objects using the power of thought alone (yes really!). It worked well, and was fascinating, it was like wearing a shower cap full of electrodes. 

After all the experiments ended, we were able to ask questions. I found myself having to resist the temptation to take the conversation off down a path of topics like free-will and consciousness, two areas that I would have loved to have explored the current thinking on, but, I didn't want to hijack the session (we wanted to encourage the kids to ask their own questions) All in all a stimulating diversion from the daily routine! Afterwards, I took my daughter out for a good old chin-wag about school, friends and life in-general as we munched our way through pizza at a restaurant in Caversham, a thoroughly enjoyable day, one I will treasure. 

You could say I've had a privileged insight into the teenage mind (in more ways than one!)