Beta Rhythm (Music of the Mind)

One of the reasons that neuroscience has taken off over the last decade is the emergence of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a tool to non-invasively watch the living human brain in action. But fMRI scans can't directly detect neurons firing - instead, they monitor where blood is flowing in the brain. The brain somehow directs the body's vascular system to bring blood to just those regions of the brain that need it, a "Just In Time" marshalling of resources. And this happens not just in the brain but throughout the body, under direction from the nervous system. Basically, in order to get blood to flow to a specific region of the body, the diameter of the blood vessels in this region need to increase ("vasodilation"). This reduces the blood pressure and, since liquids always flow from regions of high pressure to regions of low pressure, blood moves into the area of the brain that has dilated blood capilleries. The fMRI detects the fact that there