Nestled inside a giant MRI machine, the woman wears a helmet outfitted with special probes. Peering through high-tech goggles, she sees images designed to trigger the awful, familiar cravings that have wrecked her life. Heroin residue on tin foil. Lines of powder cocaine. Pain pills scattered on a table. At the same time, scientists buzz around a small observation room, scrutinizing brain scans on computer monitors, calibrating measurements, tweaking data points.
The device, dubbed DIADEM, will be more affordable than using “completely impractical” and expensive MRI machines to guide the sound waves, said Jan Kubanek, a Utah neuroscientist helping lead the research who believes the approach has the potential to be used at a large scale. Participants do not have to shave their heads as they do with MRI procedures, which is done to help the sound waves better penetrate the skull, Kubanek said. At U-Va.