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   Brain scans could help doctors better predict your behavior   
   By Jen Christensen, CNN   
   Updated 7:04 AM ET, Tue January 13, 2015   
   A new paper says doctors might want to examined how a person's brain   
   functions before treating them.   
   A new paper says doctors might want to examined how a person's brain functions   
   before treating them.   
   Story highlights   
   Brain scans could take the guess work out of some therapy, study suggests   
   Brain scans could predict the best way to teach a child   
   The technology could become as common as a blood test to determine the most   
   effective treatment   
   (CNN)Forget horoscopes or fortune tellers. There's a new way to tell your   
   future, and it involves a much more reliable medium: human neuroscience.   
      
   A new study looks at over 70 scientific publications about brain scans such as   
   functional magnetic resonance imaging or electroencephalography, noninvasive   
   tests that measure brain activity.   
      
   The paper that runs in the latest edition of Neuron concludes that doctors   
   might have more success treating some patients if they examined the way a   
   person's brain functioned first.   
      
   Scan a brain, read a mind?   
      
   Brain scans have been used to make basic discoveries about human behavior for   
   decades, but they are not routinely ordered to determine someone's overall   
   health or course of treatment in the way as blood test are used.   
      
      
   This new study suggests technology in this area has become so advanced that   
   approaches to treatment would be more effective if brain scans were used more   
   routinely.   
      
   For instance, when someone is being treated for a mental disorder such as   
   depression or anxiety, there is only a 50% success rate typically, according   
   to John Gabrieli, the lead author on this paper.   
      
      
   Gupta: Depression is a brain disease 03:19   
   Brain scans reveal what you've seen   
      
   The professor of cognitive neuroscience at MIT believes that a brain scan   
   could cut out a lot of the guesswork on what might make the most effective   
   treatment for a person's depression.   
      
   "In so many situations right now, we have almost no idea which is the best way   
   to promote a person's health," Gabrieli said. Some people may respond better   
   to behavioral modification. Some may respond better to treating their   
   depression with drugs. Some    
   people might even have an adverse reaction to certain medication.   
      
   If the doctor were to scan that person's brain first, the scans could give the   
   doctor an objective way to decide what treatment would work best for the   
   patient.   
      
   "With this kind of science, we don't have to wait for a failure," Gabrieli   
   said. "We know what will be the best fit."   
      
   Lack of sleep might shrink your brain   
      
   Being able to anticipate where someone could fail might also give a doctor an   
   opportunity to intervene before they do. For instance, a brain scan can show   
   the greater likelihood of a teen getting hooked on drugs. If doctors could   
   know that a teen was    
   particularly vulnerable to addiction, they could attempt steer them away from   
   that behavior.   
      
   On a scan, you can really see the difference between a healthy brain and an   
   addict's brain.   
      
   A healthy brain and an addict's brain will look different using a brain   
   scan. A healthy brain will show even blood flow and activity, an addicts brain   
   would show more problems on a scan.   
   A healthy brain and an addict's brain will look different using a brain scan.   
   A healthy brain will show even blood flow and activity, an addicts brain would   
   show more problems on a scan.   
   There could be many additional health and education applications for these   
   kinds of scans, Gabrieli said.   
      
   Brain scans could help predict what therapy would be most effective to help   
   someone quit smoking. A brain scan could help teachers better understand which   
   kinds of lessons would be best for a student. Brain scans could help a parole   
   board better predict    
   whether a criminal would reoffend if released from jail.   
      
   "Overall (this) is a very exciting perspective," wrote Mike Gazzaniga in an   
   email after reviewing the new study. Gazzaniga is the director of the SAGE   
   Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California Santa Barbara. He   
   agrees with the authors    
   that this technology should and will be used more. This is "going to help in   
   the thorny areas such as psychiatric disease. I see that happening in the near   
   future."   
      
      
   How to break bad habits -- and form new ones 02:17   
   Brain scans will become another effective tool to help doctors tailor their   
   treatment for individual patients.   
      
   "We now commonly take blood tests for a huge variety of disease," Gazzaniga   
   wrote. "When it comes to human behavior, brain imaging might well serve a   
   similar purpose."   
      
   As the imaging has become highly accurate and highly specific, Gazzaniga adds   
   the "task now is to figure out how the individual variation that is seen   
   relates to a specific person's behavior. It is an exciting time."   
      
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/13/health/brain-scan-images/   
      
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