蜜芽传媒

Claudia Hammond looks at how our understanding of the brain has changed.

In 1988, scientists predicted that new techniques for scanning the brain would lead to treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Researchers were enthusiastic about the possibilities for seeing what went on in the brain and many had high hopes that they would start to understand how and why mental health problems develop. But how much progress has been made?

Professor Irene Tracey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, and Professor Sophie Scott, from the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College in London, discuss with Claudia the major advances in this fast-growing field. They also take a sceptical look and ask whether, with its highly ambitious big brain studies, the science is still promising more than it can deliver.

Picture credit: Doctor examines a brain scan, City Hospital in Belfast. Press Association Archive