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Photos: Supercomputers unlocking the brain's secrets
Cubric's odyssey

By Nick Heath

Published: Monday 13 October 2008

Here is the Magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner, which maps the magnetic fields associated with electric fields in the brain.

Cubric's MEG is one of the best available and is able to record data from about 275 locations in the brain simultaneously.

The machine produces about a gigabyte of data every 20 minutes and produces information that is used to map the location of brain activity on MRI brain scans.

The results are helping researchers to understand brain function and are being used in the study of epilepsy, in particular looking at where in the brain seizures occur.

MEG laboratory manager Suresh Muthukumaraswamy said: "I used to leave the PC grinding through the data over the weekend and sometimes it would still be going on the Monday.

"Now with the cluster it takes about 20 minutes to finish. It also means I can do types of analysis that were not available to me before."

Photo credit: Nick Heath/silicon.com