The search for a better brain-imaging technology has taken a novel turn at Hitachi Advanced Research Labs in Hatoyama, Japan. The company's researchers aren't just perfecting a new imaging machine-a reasonable goal for the electronics giant-they are helping to conduct basic brain-science studies geared at improving education and even promoting world peace. To achieve those goals, researchers are using imaging advances to do everything from observing the pathways of comprehension in newborns to tracking the ways an adult brain compensates for injuries while it performs such high-level tasks as writing, solving math problems, and responding to spoken commands.

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