there's something actually in there

September 28, 2005 7:30 AM

THE ULTIMATE SELF LINK: MY BRAIN. Use this excellent little MRI program to open .hdr 3d-scan files. Endless, disturbing fun.
posted by Pretty_Generic (27 comments total)

Aw... the download link to the actual program seems not to be working. Does anyone have a mirror?

Also, I got a cat-scan recently, and would have liked to be given the data files. Can I request them?
posted by odinsdream at 7:49 AM on September 28, 2005

This is not worth a whole MeTa thread, but I submit that it's not a good idea to have an ftp:// link as the main one of your post. Crashed my browser, just for instance. Next time I'll mouseover more carefully, of course.
posted by soyjoy at 7:52 AM on September 28, 2005

Download link working fine for me. Try right-clicking and saving the zip to disk (I assume you're talkin bout the Windows version).
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:52 AM on September 28, 2005

Nevermind. Download worked. Awesome.
posted by odinsdream at 7:53 AM on September 28, 2005

Crashed my browser

Thine browser ist lame.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:53 AM on September 28, 2005

If anyone sees any lymphomas in there, let me know. I love those little guys.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 7:54 AM on September 28, 2005

soyjoy, here's an HTTP link to the brain files. (zip file, ~8.6 MB, much smaller than the FTP files.)
posted by odinsdream at 8:03 AM on September 28, 2005

This is one of the strangest sites I've seen in some time. I have no idea how these people got their heads wedged into the scanners, or why.
posted by eddydamascene at 8:09 AM on September 28, 2005

Thanks so much, P_G! This is so cool!
posted by blendor at 8:16 AM on September 28, 2005

Why bother with the crazy file? Why not just link a picture? - and yes, that's MY BRAIN!

There's something really trippy about looking at a picture of your own brain...especially when it is what earns your livelihood.
posted by redbeard at 8:16 AM on September 28, 2005

p.s. got the pic by volunteering for an FMRI study. Universities are running 'em all the time. They pay pretty well, don't require you to do anything frakked up, and, if you ask nicely before it all starts, get you a pic of your noodle!
posted by redbeard at 8:17 AM on September 28, 2005

redbeard; because the viewer program can access the entire scan at once, and allows you to step through the slices interactively. My favorite part of the program is the rotation tools. You can rotate to any calculateable image slice. It's entirely awesome.
posted by odinsdream at 8:20 AM on September 28, 2005

Why not just link a picture?

A JPEG doesn't let you navigate the slices in full 3D...
posted by Pretty_Generic at 8:20 AM on September 28, 2005

Thanks, odinsdream, for a more helpful response than "thine browser ist lame."

The suggestion was simply that we have an expectation of an actual HTTP link as the main one for the post, and if you're going to do otherwise, as with this or a PDF, it might be a good idea to move the FTP link to a secondary position and/or label it as such.
posted by soyjoy at 8:24 AM on September 28, 2005

Well, your browser is also lame. And probably a poopy head.
posted by odinsdream at 8:32 AM on September 28, 2005

> yes, that's MY BRAIN!

Here's mine
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:40 AM on September 28, 2005

> And probably a poopy head.

Why be satisfied with probably?

By navigating the slices in full 3d, you can actually search for the poopy and settle the matter conclusively.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 8:42 AM on September 28, 2005

Ah, 3D, I see. Sadly Pretty_generic, your brain is not OSX compatible.
posted by redbeard at 9:06 AM on September 28, 2005

Ah, 3D, I see. Sadly Pretty_generic, your brain is not OSX compatible.

Silly redbeard. Mac's are for hearts not heads.
posted by srboisvert at 9:18 AM on September 28, 2005

For OSX, there's the free and open source, and EXCELLENT OsiriX.

I've used them on my friend's MRI data. You can do all sorts of nifty things. Zoom around, make 3D volume models, export clips to an iPod..

It's fun!
posted by Laen at 10:07 AM on September 28, 2005

Zoom around, make 3D volume models, export clips to an iPod..

This is my brain, this is my brain on death metal.
posted by MrLint at 10:25 AM on September 28, 2005

Thank you for not mentioning that my polygon-mapped skull looks like a Doom 3 zombie.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 11:20 AM on September 28, 2005

also, I love eddydamascene
posted by Pretty_Generic at 11:30 AM on September 28, 2005

also, I love eddydamascene

You need to get your head scanned.
posted by eddydamascene at 11:53 AM on September 28, 2005

Here's reconstructions of the left hemisphere of my brain and my skull.

They pay pretty well, don't require you to do anything frakked up, and, if you ask nicely before it all starts, get you a pic of your noodle!

The fMRI study I got mine from involved giving me electric shocks on my foot while looking at pictures of colored shapes. It was a little frakked up.
posted by hupp at 1:22 PM on September 28, 2005

Dude!
I did one of these studies today. I had to do math problems real fast in the tube. They're emailing me my brain next week, and I got eighty bucks.

Isn't the future wonderful?
posted by ITheCosmos at 4:51 PM on September 28, 2005

The last time I had a scan, I asked the tech what media I should bring in to get a copy of the image -- they use 6 GB 5-1/4" mag-optical format at the local lab. I brought one in, he handed me back the image files, no question.

Well, there was a few minutes' delay because they had my file mixed up with someone else's and had the social security numbers confused, so it took some sorting out. All in all it was probably a good thing that I asked them to check on it, so they caught the error.

>shudder<

It took a few years before OsiriX came along and I could look at the images, but I'm very glad I did.

(The newest OsiriX wants a G4, but the earlier version works fine on my G3 Pismo under 10.3 x)

I can see my cataract implant in the one eye, quite clearly, in one slice. So, yes, I'm convinced it's me.

Definitely nice to have a baseline scan handy -- and given the way my medical files have tended to get lost over the past 30 years, keeping a copy of everything seems smart.

Now, if someone wants to work up a Fantastic Voyage interface and let me navigate around in the ventricles, that'd be nice too.
posted by hank at 6:00 PM on September 28, 2005