CISC research news and events
Scanning for Gold Exhibition at BSMS and then beyond
The bodies of five Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls are profiled in an innovative exhibition combining medical imaging and striking photography as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival 2010.
Scanning for Gold scrutinises the physiques of high performance athletes and gives an insight into their training regimes as they prepare for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. Led by the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) in partnership with the University of Brighton's Chelsea School.
The exhibition opened on 11 May 2010 as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival and has been traveling to venues across Sussex since. High-performance athletes in the areas of triathlon, weightlifting and paralympic cycling are examined. For this project, they had their bodies MRI-scanned at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School's Clinical Sciences Imaging Centre at the University of Sussex. To complement this, Brighton-based photographer James Lewis went behind the scenes capturing the athletes' daily training regime. This was supported with debate from lecturers in anatomy, imaging and exercise physiology at BSMS and the Chelsea School, as well as the athletes themselves about what it takes to become an elite athlete performing on the international stage.
One of those profiled, five-time paralympic gold medallist cyclist and current three-time world record holder, Darren Kenny said: "Having had so many scans as a result of my injuries, it was really interesting to see my scans from a sports performance perspective. It was fascinating to see the effect of training on my body." All the other athletes profiled are Sussex-based and include BSMS medical student and triathlete, Todd Leckie and University of Brighton Engineering student and weightlifter, Halil Zorba.
Photographer James Lewis said: "I found the whole process of photographing these athletes a great privilege. Their dedication and attention and focus to detail were awesome." Head of Anatomy at BSMS, Professor Darrell Evans said: "This is a great opportunity to promote the wider understanding of science, by linking it to sporting activity." This exhibition has been supported by the Creative Campus Initiative, a project that creates art projects within universities inspired by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, and is one of eight projects shared between the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex.
The exhibition opened in the BSMS foyer as a Brighton Fringe Festival event before travelling to key locations across Sussex.
Young researcher wins the 2010 Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre Scanning Prize
In early 2010 the Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre (CISC) ran its first competition to win up to 12 hours of scanning time free of charge. The competition, which required applicants to devise a study involving imaging, was designed to encourage young investigators from the Universities of Brighton, Sussex, BSMS and the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust to enter the world of imaging research. Submitted projects were all judged on the basis of scientific merit, innovation, theoretical and methodological quality. The winner was Nick Smeeton a researcher from the Chelsea School, University of Brighton. The fMRI scanning time awarded to Nick will be utilised to identify the area(s) of the brain activated in sportspeople when they anticipate responses, such as where a ball is likely to land, and investigate whether the mirror neuron system is the mechanism at work.
The competition will run again in 2011 - watch this space!
Disgusting experiment answers century-old philosophical question
If someone is sick next to you on the bus, you'll probably feel disgusted, your stomach will turn and you will start to feel sick as well. But is your stomach churning because you feel disgusted, or is your sense of disgust caused by your stomach churning? This is the question posed by Dr Neil Harrison and Professor Hugo Critchley in a study funded by the Wellcome Trust.
The full article can be accessed by visiting the Wellcome Trust website.
See Dr Harrison's research in the article 'Revulsion Arising' published in the January 2011 edition of Scientific American.
Research offers new hope for flu sufferers
Research, lead by Dr Neil Harrison, sheds new light on the brain's response to infection and suggests it's not the physical symptoms of flu that make us feel so rotten, it's the brain's response to the infection. By using a functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner (fMRI), they could monitor which parts of the brain were inflamed when performing simple tasks, such as looking at emotional facial expressions.
The full article can be accessed by visiting the BBC website.