Volunteering

What are we looking at?

Positron Emission Tomography (or PET) scanning can be used to produce maps of blood flow and glucose and oxygen consumption by the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning can be used to indentify areas of the brain that respond to certain tasks. We are using these techniques to study changes in function after brain injury. As part of these important studies we need to compare scans from healthy subjects with those obtained from patients with brain injury, and are looking for healthy volunteers for this purpose. We would be delighted to provide you with copies of your brain scans if you are willing to volunteer.

Who can volunteer?

We are looking for male and female volunteers aged 18 or over who are in good health.
The procedures are not thought to be associated with significant hazard, and many members of the research team have already been scanned

What does it involve?

There are two types of scanning we use for detecting brain function:

1. PET scanning: You will have to lie in our scanner for about 90 minutes. A small amount of radioactive tracer will be injected into a vein. This dose of radiation is about twice the average amount received by someone in Cambridge from natural sources in a year. For some scans (but not all) we will also need to insert a small tube into one of the arteries in your wrist to get blood samples during the scan. You will also need to have a magnetic resonance brain scan in our centre, so that we can compare structure with function.

2. fMRI scanning: You will have to lie in our MRI scanner for about 90 minutes. Whilst in the scanner you will be asked to perform tasks (such as counting) whilst the scanner takes images of your brain. MRI can be noisy and involves a large magnetic field.

Interested? Please contact us at:

UK Telephone: 01223 - 331820

Email: lm456@wbic.cam.ac.uk (Mrs. Linda Morgan, WBIC Administrator)