Brain Mapping Can Help Brain Injury Victims With Their Case and Their Recovery
I came across another interesting write-up from the folks in Berkeley on their website titled Science Today pertaining to new technology and understanding the brain. If I didn't represent brain injury victims in my law practice, I would probably think that magnetoencephalography would only come up in a New York Times or Chicago Tribune crossword puzzle. Physicist Robert Kraus of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has helped develop a helmet of sensors that can be used with a technique called magnetoencephalography to observe tiny electrical currents in the brain.
Explained by Mr. Kraus, when you think, when you move a hand, when you see things, large numbers of brain cells or neurons fire in your brain all together - simultaneously. That produces a current. That current results in a magnetic field; that magnetic field comes out of your head and we measure the magnetic field all around your head with a sensor system.
Often times, in a brain injury case, you will have expert witnesses offering opinions as to the severity of the plaintiff's brain injury. These professional opinions naturally have an element of subjectivity, so I insist on understanding the science and medicine so that I may intelligently represent my clients. Magnetoencephalography could provide the brain activity measurement results to strengthen a brain injury case.
Beyond the benefits of using magnetoencephalography results in the courtroom, this technology can also help my brain injury clients with their recovery. The ability to map the brain and better understand how an injury has impacted the brain is significant information in the process of determining what treatments and therapies to focus on going forward.
Source: Science Today at the University of California (www.ucop.edu/sciencetoday)
