Depictions of its inherent strength have been inconsistent; at times in the storylines it could detect mutated aliens outside of the planet, when at others it could only scan for mutants' signatures in the United States.

Using Cerebro can be extremely dangerous, and telepaths without well-trained, disciplined minds put themselves at great risk when attempting to use it.

The one exception has been Magneto, who has been said to have minor or latent telepathic abilities as well as experience amplifying his mental powers with mechanical devices of his own design.

X essentially utilized this function to resurrect the mutant strike team lost while battling Orchis by withholding their hard copied mind's, their anima, onto home grown clone bodies; which would effectively allow him to resurrect any and every mutant who has ever died or will die by imprinting a shell with their respective neuropsychic imprint.

Cerebro's goal was to put human beings in stasis so that mutants could inherit the Earth, and to this end it hunted down a group of synthetic children called the Mannites who possessed vast psychic powers.

[citation needed] After it is discovered that Terrigen is toxic to mutants and Storm's X-Men move to Limbo, Forge programs Cerebra into the body of a Sentinel and uploads her with the capability to showcase human emotion.

Cerebra accompanies the X-Men on many of their missions to help find mutants and bring them to X-Haven where they'll be safe from the Terrigen.

[4] While Storm's team of X-Men began returning refugees to their homes from X-Haven after Medusa destroyed the Terrigen cloud, Cerebra was found severely damaged in an abandoned barn surrounded by wild Sentinels.

Forge was able to create this seventh version of the Cerebro as a portable unit able to be worn as a helmet by Xavier to focus his psionic talent at all times.

He then utilized its true functioning of stirring and transplanting persona & psyche while in conjunction with the technomorphically modified genus loci of Krakoa and the unified teamwork of the Five; a mutant conclave consisting of Joshua Foley, Hope Summers, Eva Bell, Kevin MacTaggert and Fabio Medina who gestate and accelerate the regrowth of fallen mutants by combining their powers.

Kid Omega flies into Cerebrax and, with some help from Sage, unleashes a powerful explosion that ultimately destroys the Cerebro unit and himself.

In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, it was destroyed along with the rest of the mansion, but Forge mentioned plans on building Cerebra to replace it.

In the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, while the team is staying in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Professor X used a device created by Beast allowing him to use Cerebro from long distance in order to find Nightcrawler, who had been kidnapped by Dr. Doom.

Professor Jeffrey J. Kripal, in his 2011 book Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, describes the Cerebro of the X-Men films as "a futuristic superroom into which Professor Xavier wheels over a bridge in order to don the helmet that would magnify his already extraordinary telepathic powers and project the results onto the skull-like internal walls of the room.

In the first film, Professor X mentions to Wolverine that Magneto helped him build it, and therefore knows how to construct helmets with circuitry to block its detection abilities.

In X-Men: First Class, an early version of Cerebro exists in an unnamed CIA science facility, built by the young Hank McCoy to amplify brainwaves.

In the film, Emma Frost comments on her perception of Xavier's increased telepathic range when using Cerebro, which she feels despite being some thousands of miles away.

As his abilities begin to return, the young Xavier initially attempts to use it to find Mystique after she escapes from their first confrontation, but has trouble concentrating enough to use it properly due to his current emotional turmoil.

Also, in 1973, Mystique returns to the mansion to get treatment for her wound as a cover for her real agenda to smash Cerebro, preventing Xavier from finding her again.

It was primarily used by Professor Xavier and he was shown to use it in various ways, such as detecting mutants, increasing his powers, and even understanding Shi'ar technology, and so forth.

Even the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost, used Cerebro when she telepathically hacked into it to secretly "spy" on Xavier, the X-Men, and to learn more about Jean Grey and her transformation into the Phoenix.

During the fight, Cerebro was shown to unleash the Phoenix within Jean for a split second, eventually gaining the power to defeat the evil Xavier, and return him to normal.

Originally Cerebro was damaged in an unexplained attack on Professor X in the present where he ends up in a coma only to awake twenty years into the future.

In the future twenty years from now the X-Men have all been killed and the world is being controlled by the mutant-hunting robots named Sentinels.

As Xavier is comatose in the present and Jean Grey missing, Emma Frost serves as the team's resident telepath and she primarily uses Cerebro.

In the episode "Tolerance is Extinction - Part 1", Beast recalibrated Cerebro to scan for cyborg brain frequencies, to find out how many people have been turned into Prime Sentinels by Bastion.