Dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, & legal protection of individuals in the process of correcting the misalignment of their anatomical sex, & supporting their transition into society.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses a magnetic field and radio waves to visualize the structure and function of the body. An MRI examination can last between 30-90 minutes. This video provides background on MRI and demonstrates the procedure.
Video: Ressonância magnética, courtesy of Edson Zerati, MD.
Time 06:40
Leipzig & Berlin, Germany. Human survival depends on the ability to make appropriate choices. Selecting the best course of action is a complex process that integrates motivational states, raw sensory information, and analysis of potential outcomes. For a current study, researchers used brain scans to investigate unconscious preparations in the human brain, finding that such mental activity may handle decision-making to a larger extent than most of are aware.
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze and John-Dylan Haynes. Nature Neuroscience. 13 April 2008. doi: 10.1038 / nn.2112
Researchers from a group led by Professor John-Dylan Haynes used functional magnetic reasonance imaging (fMRI) to a scan the brains of participants and investigate what happens just before a decision occurs.
Haynes and his colleagues say that "Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being
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overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings."
In the photo, Haynes (right) prepares an MRI machine to gather data the intentions of Christian Kalberlah.
Image: Carsten Bogler, Max Planck Institute.
In the study, participants could freely decide if they wanted to press a button with their left or right hand. They were free to make this decision whenever they wanted, but had to remember at which time they felt they had made up their mind. The aim of the experiment was to find out what happens in the brain in the period just before the person felt the decision was made.
Normally researchers look at what happens when the decision is made, but not at what happens several seconds before. The researchers found that it was possible to predict from brain signals which option participants would take up to seven seconds before they consciously made their decision. The fact that decisions can be predicted — and documented — so long before they are made is considered astonishing by seasoned investigators.
Brain regions (shown in green) from which the outcome of a participant's decision can be predicted before it is made. The top shows an enlarged 3D view of a pattern of brain activity in one informative brain region. Computer-based pattern classifiers can be trained to recognize which of these micropatterns typically occur just before either left or right decisions. These classifiers can then be used to predict the outcome of a decision up to 7 seconds before a person thinks he is consciously making the decision.
Image: John-Dylan Haynes.
This unprecedented prediction of a free decision was made possible by sophisticated computer programs that were trained to recognize typical brain activity patterns preceding each of the two choices. Micropatterns of activity in the frontopolar cortex were predictive of the choices even before participants knew which option they were going to choose. The decision could not be predicted perfectly, but prediction was clearly above chance. This suggests that the decision is unconsciously prepared ahead of time but the final decision might still be reversible.
"Most researchers investigate what happens when people have to decide immediately, typically as a rapid response to an event in our environment. Here we were focusing on the more interesting decisions that are made in a more natural, self-paced manner", Haynes explains.
More than 20 years ago the American brain scientist Benjamin Libet found a brain signal, the so-called "readiness-potential", that occurred a fraction of a second before a conscious decision. Libet’s experiments were highly controversial and sparked a huge debate. Many scientists argued that if our decisions are prepared unconsciously by the brain, then our feeling of "free will" must be an illusion. In this view, it is the brain that makes the decision, not a person’s conscious mind. Libet’s experiments were particularly controversial because he found only a brief time delay between brain activity and the conscious decision.
The current research has generated strong interest in the scientific community. Haynes and colleagues have shown that brain activity predicts -- even up to 7 seconds ahead of time — how a person is going to decide. The 71% accuracy rate is about 20% more successful than random selection.
But they also warn that the study does not finally rule out free will. "Our study shows that decisions are unconsciously prepared much longer ahead than previously thought. But we do not know yet where the final decision is made. We need to investigate whether a decision prepared by these brain areas can still be reversed."
The findings have raised a number of important ethical questions. Researchers have long used MRI machines to identify different types of brain activity. However, the current research, even though in its initial stages, may have wide-ranging implications for criminal interrogations, security checks, abusive actions by governments and employers.
Unconscious determinants of free decisions in the human brain. Chun Siong Soon, Marcel Brass, Hans-Jochen Heinze and John-Dylan Haynes. Nature Neuroscience. 13 April 2008. doi: 10.1038 / nn.2112
Abstract. There has been a long controversy as to whether subjectively 'free' decisions are determined by brain activity ahead of time. We found that the outcome of a decision can be encoded in brain activity of prefrontal and parietal cortex up to 10 s before it enters awareness. This delay presumably reflects the operation of a network of high-level control areas that begin to prepare an upcoming decision long before it enters awareness.
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Today we are seen as being part of the GLBT and also treated as if we were the result of choice or nurture, which has nothing to do with our birth anomaly.
That is what has happened so now we too are seen as part of the Transgender gobblygook.
Robot Violinist. A robot plays Pomp and Circumstance on the violin. The robot used its mechanical fingers to push the strings and bowed with its other arm.
The 152 cm (five foot) performer can perform a variety of tasks with its hands and arms, each of which has 17 joints.
Using precise control and coordination to achieve human-like agility, the robot could also be used to assist with domestic duties or nursing and medical care.
In the photo, Haynes (right) prepares an MRI machine to gather data the intentions of Christian Kalberlah. 
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