Pilot Cooling Suit used in fMRI study
Date
1969
Description
Originally manufactured in the UK in 1969, this pilot’s cooling suit found its way to the Florey in 2004 via the NASA space program and then Prof John Johnson’s cutaneous circulation laboratory at University of Texas, San Antonio. Icy cold water was pumped through the suit to produce rapid cooling of the skin and shivering by subjects inside the MRI at the Brain Research Institute (Austin, Heidelberg) while functional MRI scans were acquired. An area of neurons about 5mm2 in the brainstem (rostral medullary raphé) were shown to be selectively activated for the first time in humans confirming an essential part of the brains role in cold defence. The study also importantly showed this area in the human brain is homologous with animal studies. This work was published by Prof Robin McAllen et al in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) in 2006.
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