Question: How do you investigate the human brain?

Emma Ross answered on 20 Jun 2013:

I use a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation, which is where you hold a large magnet over someones head, and to stimulate the brain you turn on the magnetic field for a very short time (half a second), and this makes the brain cells excited, and they start to fire. Once you have got them to fire a signal off, this signal will travel to some of our muscles, by travelling out of the brain, down the spinal cord and through our nerves to the muscle. By using this technique we can investigate how well our brain conects with our muscles, which is important for movement, reactions and co-ordination.