ONE of the world's most important centres for the study of the human brain will be officially opened tomorrow.

At the heart of the £5.2m York Neuroimaging Centre are two of the most powerful brain scanners in the UK.

Together, the scanners produce visually stunning images, allowing detailed study of brain functions and conditions.

The centre, at York Science Park, will be opened by the Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Sainsbury.

York University scientists are particularly pleased with the new £1.1m magneto- encephalographic (Meg) scanner, the first of its kind in Europe.

The scanner provides a non-invasive way of mapping the magnetic fields created by electrical activity in brains.

An integral part of the Meg scanner is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, which has twice the power of a typical hospital device.

In order to exclude background magnetic fields, the Meg scanner is in a room made of alloys developed for the purpose.

It will be used by psychologists for research connected with perception, language, memory, emotion and motor tasks.

The Meg scanner can also be used to study abnormal brain activity associated with conditions such as epilepsy, providing precise data on the timing of neural activity.

Images from the two scanners, which have been operating since February, are analysed using the most powerful group of Apple G5 computers in the UK.

The centre is devising research programmes into autism, epilepsy, dementia and strokes.