THE ARCHIVE

This Tuesday I experienced the first MRI scan of my life at the Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center. The entire procedure and follow-up survey took less than two hours and I earned $70 in cold hard cash. This proves that selling one’s body to science is a much more lucrative pastime than blogging for Cornell, but for the time being I will continue to do both.

The MRI came on the heels of another research session where I answered questions and played a series of simple video games. This time I played video games in the machine with little buttons and sensors attached to my hands. The experience had the surreal and futuristic qualities that I generally associate with Star Wars. They laid me down on a plank, wrapped me up in blankets, and stabilized my head inside a plastic cage. As I lay in the enormous cyclone of machinery, they watched my vital signs and spoke to me reassuringly through a raspy headset. The scan progressed and James Earl Jones spoke to me about the wonders of Madagascar.

In the adjacent room, two researchers and a technician analyzed digital renderings of my head as I reacted to various types of stimulation. They promised to send me a video of my brain in the next few days, but in the meantime I have included this picture (of someone else) for effect. It looks pretty cool, right?

This entry was posted on October 22, 2009 at 16:48 and is filed under New York City . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.