Brain Bucket

‘Brain Bucket’ Can See Into Your Brain

New MRI Can See Down to Smallest Blood Vessels, Can Detect Problems Earlier

By CHRIS STRATHMANN and LEE FERRAN
May 4, 2009

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It may look like something out of a sci-fi film costume closet, but a new brain scanner, affectionately known as the “Brain Bucket,” is the latest in the high-tech fight against brain disorders.

Advancements in medicine produces clearer and faster images of the brain.

Developed and implemented at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the device, officially titled the “multi-channel phased ray coil,” is basically a helmet featuring a myriad of sensors and coils connected an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine.

With the Brain Bucket, the MRI can generate incredibly high-resolution images of the brain up to 10 times faster than older machines — and sometimes that can mean the difference between life and death.

“It’s like we went from a cell phone camera to a 10 megapixel digital camera,” Dr. Bruce Rosen, one of the Brain Bucket’s creators and Director of the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Center at MGH, told “Good Morning America.”

“When you take a picture with a Brain Bucket, it can look literally like you took the brain, slice it up, and we’re staring right at it before your eyes,” Rosen said.