I had a brain scan at the WBIC today, for a research project on relationships between piano playing and dexterity/rhythm-keeping. Brain-scanning is quite fun - you lie on a mattress in a narrow tube, but they've a cunning rear-view mirror which allows you to see out the back of the scanner and read the projected computer screen. The first 1/4 of my time there involved doing things, and then I watched Charlie's Angels with the sound off while they played piano tones at me, and then they turned the sound on while they took a structural scan.

The scanner makes quite a racket, even through earplugs and headphones: a steady rhythmic low thumping with an overlaid faster thumping. The functional scanning had a much higher-pitched thumping than the structural scanning. I was impressed by the headphones, they came with a throat mic for two-way conversation and I could hear quite clearly through them despite the scanner noise. There was also an emergency squeeze-alarm taped to my chest, and a nice cozy blanket to keep me warm. It is both cold and dry in the scanner, and my biggest problem was trying not to blink or swallow too often while scanning, and not wriggle too much as the mattress slowly got less comfortable.

While there, I was amused by this poster, specifically the picture at the bottom: