The Burnaby-based Down Syndrome Research Foundation is shutting down its state-of-the-art brain scanner for six months due to lack of funding.

"We can't afford to keep it running," said Dawn McKenna, the foundation's executive director.

The magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner measures the magnetic fields that occur in the brain when neurons fire with millisecond accuracy. Numerous researchers from across the country and even the U.S. have used the scanner in Burnaby, which is the only one of its kind this side of Toronto.

"We're the only organization of our kind in the world, that has our breadth and our scope, that is not housed in a university or hospital setting," said McKenna. "We are totally independent."

Read more: http://www.burnabynow.com/health/Plug+pulled+brain+scanner/3612657/story.html#ixzz11MemvvmV