Chinese scientists go in search of the soul with world’s most powerful brain scanner
- Billion-yuan device set to ‘revolutionise brain studies’, aid research into Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s
- First phase of project approved, but design process expected to take at least five years before construction can start
China has launched a plan to develop the world’s most powerful brain scanner, one that could generate an extremely strong magnetic field to observe for the first time the structure and activities of every neuron in a living human brain.
The goal is to build the world’s most powerful magnetic resonance imaging device.
The projected scanner would not only produce a snapshot with details far beyond what existing instruments can provide, but also track various types of chemical agents including sodium, phosphorus and potassium that pass critical signals along neural fibre networks to study consciousness and brain-related diseases such as Parkinson’s.
The billion-yuan device “will revolutionise brain studies”, said a senior scientist working on the project, which is based in the city of Shenzhen in southern China’s Guangdong province.
The total budget for the facility, which is still under construction, will exceed that of FAST (Five Hundred Meter Aperture Spherical Telescope), the world’s largest telescope in Pingtan, Guizhou province, said the scientist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the programme has not gone fully public.
But instead of aiming at the sky, this powerful “telescope” would peer inward to probe the origin and evolution of consciousness, the scientist said.