When the physicists Felix Block and Edward Mills Purcell in 1946 discovered the magnetic resonance independent of each other only few people may have anticipated that this method would solve one of the most difficult problems of neuroscientists:  To look under the skullcap and gain insights into the exact anatomy and functional circuits of the brain without affecting a person’s health. With the help of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we are nowadays able to virtually “fractionalise” the brain into slices with a thickness of one millimetre – without radioactivity, without X-rays and without side effects.

The test person is laid into a strong, quite narrow tubular magnet - and must remain absolute still. After a few minutes the neuroscientist may view the intricacies of the test person’s brain images on the computer monitor.