Earlier Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease Can Be Enabled by Quantum Brain Sensors

Dec, 2021 - By WMR

Researchers at the University of Sussex have shown how an emerging type of quantum sensor can help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.

A modular quantum brain scanner is developed to record brain signals by scientists from the University of Sussex. This is the world’s first scanner that unveils the ability to scan the whole brain and progress in diseases like Alzheimer’s. This device uses the tiniest magnetic fields to map the activity of the nervous system in the brain using ultra-sensitive quantum sensors. This device opens up the ability to scan the entire brain using quantum technology.

The quantum sensor makes use of an optically pumped magnetometer inside the magnetic shield to cut back the environmental magnetic flux. That is to say, it operates by placing the vapor during a quantum situation, employing a photodetector to illuminate the ray and see what proportion of light has versed it. How an atomic vapor interacts very sensitively with laser light relies upon the field of force. This is often because the little electrical currents within the neurons within the brain cause a really small force field outside the brain that picks up the sensor.

Professor Peter Krueger, the author of the study, said that it is the quantum technology that produces these sensors so accurately. The sensors contain gas of rubidium atoms. The laser beams of light shine on the atoms and when the atoms experience changes within the field they emit light differently. The fluctuations within the emitted light reflect changes within the magnetic activity of the brain. The scientists concluded that the newly developed quantum brain scanners could revolutionize neuroscience with further developments. The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports in November 2021.