IRVINE : Scientist Studying Brain Receives Grant

A UC Irvine scientist has won a $165,000 grant to help develop a revolutionary technique for mapping brain activity, university officials announced.

Ron Frostig, an assistant professor of psychobiology at UCI, received the award recently from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. He plans to use the funds to continue research into the way various parts of the brain reflect light.

Because active areas in the brain reflect less light than inactive areas, Frostig theorizes that it may be possible to map brain activity with highly sensitive cameras. If such cameras can be developed, it would be possible to observe brain function without radioactive injections or expensive high-tech methods such as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging or positron emission tomography.