P.M. BRIEFING : New IBM Meter Notes Brain Signals

International Business Machines Corp. said today that it is introducing a medical instrument that uses 24 tiny superconductors to detect changes in the brain’s magnetic field for use in diagnosing epilepsy, stroke and deafness.

IBM said the new instrument, called a magnetometer, is about four times more effective at recording the brain’s weak magnetic signals than previous experimental models and could be used to chart complex brain function pathways. The machine uses 24 detection channels to detect magnetic fields in the brain that are about 1 billion times weaker than Earth’s magnetic field, the company said.