Video of the Day: Honey, I Love You With All My Medial Insula

If that special someone makes your heart go pitter-patter, you should see what's happening with your medial insula, anterior cingulate and hippocampus.

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New Technology Puts Guilty Verdict to the Test

An academic at the University of Sheffield has used groundbreaking technology to investigate the potential innocence of a woman convicted of poisoning a child in her care.

Professor Sean Spence, who has pioneered the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to detect lies, carried out groundbreaking experiments on the woman who, despite protesting her innocence, was sentenced to four years in prison. His results have now been published for the first time in the journal European Psychiatry.

Using the technology, Spence examined the woman´s brain activity as she alternately confirmed her account of events and that of her accusers. The tests demonstrated that when she agreed with her accusers´ account of events she activated extensive regions of her frontal lobes and also took significantly longer to respond – these findings have previously been found to be consistent with false or untrue statements.

Although the technology has previously been claimed to be 90% accurate - far better than polygraph tests – its use has also been open to debate. Lie detection tests are already used regularly in parts of the US justice system, as well as by businesses. But these are the first brain scanning tests of their kind, carried out on a real-life case, reported in the world literature.

Spence says: "This research provides a fresh opportunity for the British legal system as it has the potential to reduce the number of miscarriages of justice. However, it is important to note that, at the moment, this research doesn´t prove that this woman is innocent. Instead, what it clearly demonstrates is that her brain responds as if she were innocent."

"If proved to be accurate, and these findings replicated, this technology could be used alongside other factors to address questions of guilt versus innocence."

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Study: MRI and Echocardiography Together Can ID More Causes of Stroke Before They Strike

Based on a new study released today, researchers urge more comprehensive imaging for patients presenting to hospitals with stroke symptoms. Using both MRI and echocardiography to image the heart greatly enhances the detection of thecause and selection of the best treatment of cardioembolic strokes, the"meanest" type of stroke.

A cardioembolic stroke occurs when a thrombus (clot) dislodges from the heart, travels through the cardiovascular system and lodges in the brain, first cutting off the blood supply and then often causing a hemorrhagic bleed -- a double whammy of both types of stroke, ischemic first and then hemorrhagic. The study found that MRI detected nearly twice as many sources of stroke in the heart than echocardiogram alone. It also showed theability of MRI to reveal more heart disease conditions that contribute to clot formation in the first place. Echocardiography, however, was strong inthe detection of heart valve lesions. Combined, these imaging systems can more clearly identify underlying causes of future stroke, helping doctors decide the best initial therapy and the best treatment to prevent asecondary stroke.

The research was presented today at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting.

"This can revolutionize patient care because we can detect the underlying cause of the stroke and prevent it from occurring again," says lead author John Sheehan, M.D., an interventional radiologist at Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "A potential cardiac source should be considered in all patients presenting with ischemic strokes. All stroke patients should routinely have an MRI and ultrasound of their heart, in addition to having their brain and carotids imaged with CT and MRI. It's nice to be on the front end of a stroke --able to stop it, than on the back end, figuring out how to deal with its damage."

Stroke teams generally consist of emergency room physicians, neurologists and interventional radiologists. Interventional radiologistsare a critical part of the stroke team because they can diagnose and treatischemic stroke with clot-busting drugs, or open a blocked carotid artery nonsurgically. They are also actively involved in creating more stroke teams across the country.

Cardioembolic strokes, which account for 20 percent of embolic strokes,have a worse prognosis, producing larger, more disabling strokes that aremore likely to recur compared to other types of stroke. Blood clots can betreated with drugs before they can leave the heart, in conjunction with treating identified heart conditions, to prevent another life-threatening stroke. In the United States stroke is the leading cause of adult disability and the third leading cause of death; only heart disease and cancer cause more deaths annually.

In the study, of the 93 patients who had an MRI and echocardiogram oftheir heart after a stroke, MRI detected nearly twice as many potential causes of stroke originating from the heart compared to echocardiography. MRI also detected significant heart conditions that predispose a patient tostroke in 30 percent of patients compared to echocardiography. These additional findings included acute myocardial infarction, myocardial scarring and left ventricular aneurysms. Echocardiography was, however,more sensitive to detecting potential embolic lesions on prosthetic cardiacvalves and strokes related to a hole in the heart.

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