You may have seen recently there are more articles appearing about “how the brain works” in the scientific sections of the papers.  One of the reasons is that they have more sophisticated ways to measure what's going on in the brain. 

They can stick you in one of those big clinical NMR machines that measure the blood flow in different parts of the brain while the (hopefully not claustrophobic) subject does cross words or thinks of naked people. 

I like this new development.  Fewer mice have to die.