Magnetic resonance imaging

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI), is primarily a medical imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize the internal structure and function of the body. MRI provides much greater contrast between the different soft tissues of the body than computed tomography (CT) does, making it especially useful in neurological (brain), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and oncological (cancer) imaging. Unlike CT, it uses no ionizing radiation, but uses a powerful magnetic field to align the nuclear magnetization of (usually) hydrogen atoms in water in the body. Radio frequency (RF) fields are used to systematically alter the alignment of this magnetization, causing the hydrogen nuclei to produce a rotating magnetic field detectable by the scanner. This signal can be manipulated by additional magnetic fields to build up enough information to construct an image of the body.:36

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a relatively new technology. The first MR image was published in 1973 and the first cross-sectional image of a living mouse was published in January 1974. The first studies performed on humans were published in 1977. By comparison, the first human X-ray image was taken in 1895.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging was developed from knowledge gained in the study of nuclear magnetic resonance. In its early years the technique was referred to as nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (NMRI). However, as the word nuclear was associated in the public mind with ionizing radiation exposure it is generally now referred to simply as MRI. Scientists still use the term NMRI when discussing non-medical devices operating on the same principles. The term Magnetic Resonance Tomography (MRT) is also sometimes used.

For more information about Magnetic resonance imaging, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with magnetic resonance

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Scientists reveal secret of girl with 'all seeing eye'

Scientists reveal secret of girl with 'all seeing eye'

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jul 20, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (59) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have discovered how a 10-year-old girl born with half a brain is able to see normally through one eye. The youngster, from Germany, has both fields of vision in one eye and is the ...


Study: Believers' inferences about God's beliefs are uniquely egocentric

Study: Believers' inferences about God's beliefs are uniquely egocentric

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (49) | comments 182

Religious people tend to use their own beliefs as a guide in thinking about what God believes, but are less constrained when reasoning about other people's beliefs, according to new study published in the ...


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Intel wants a chip implant in your brain

Technology / Hi Tech

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (35) | comments 49

(PhysOrg.com) -- Computer chip maker Intel wants to implant a brain-sensing chip directly into the brains of its customers to allow them to operate computers and other devices without moving a muscle.


Computer Based on Insights From The Brain Moves Closer to Reality

Computer Based on Insights From The Brain Moves Closer to Reality

Technology / Computer Sciences

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (26) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Today at SC 09, the supercomputing conference, IBM announced significant progress toward creating a computer system that simulates and emulates the brain's abilities for sensation, perception, ...


To Make Better MRI Images, Let The Atoms Spin Out Of Control

To Make Better MRI Images, Let The Atoms Spin Out Of Control

Physics / General Physics

created Nov 25, 2008 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (25) | comments 3

Researchers in Ohio and France have solved a longstanding scientific mystery involving magnetic resonance -- the physical phenomenon that allows MRI instruments in modern hospitals to image tissues deep within ...


IBM Cantilever end with virus sample

Researchers Create Microscope With 100 Million Times Finer Resolution Than Current MRI

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jan 13, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (24) | comments 8

(PhysOrg.com) -- IBM Research scientists, in collaboration with the Center for Probing the Nanoscale at Stanford University, have demonstrated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with volume resolution 100 million ...


Matter in hand: Jugglers have rewired brains

Matter in hand: Jugglers have rewired brains

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Oct 11, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (22) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- Learning to juggle leads to changes in the white matter of the brain, an Oxford University study has shown.


What is 'Real'? How Our Brain Differentiates Between Reality and Fantasy

What is 'Real'? How Our Brain Differentiates Between Reality and Fantasy

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Mar 23, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (22) | comments 24

(PhysOrg.com) -- Most people can easily tell the difference between reality and fantasy. We know that characters in novels and movies are fictitious, and we also understand that historical figures - even if ...


Varanus komodoensis

Komodo even more deadly than thought: Research

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 18, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (20) | comments 4

The carnivorous reptiles (Varanus komodoensis) are known to bite prey and release them, leaving them to bleed to death from their wounds: the victims are reported to go into shock before the dragons kill a ...


Modern human brain

Brain difference in psychopaths identified

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Aug 04, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (18) | comments 27

Professor Declan Murphy and colleagues Dr Michael Craig and Dr Marco Catani from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London have found differences in the brain which may provide a biological explanation ...


Pocket-sized magnetic resonance imaging

Pocket-sized magnetic resonance imaging

Technology / Engineering

created Jul 01, 2008 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (17) | comments 0

The term “MRI scan” brings to mind the gigantic, expensive machines that are installed in hospitals. But research scientists have now developed small portable MRI scanners that perform their services in the ...


Wizard at circuits, physics

Wizard at circuits, physics

Physics / General Physics

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Donhee Ham, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, uses his personal energy and understanding of physics to design innovative integrated circuits.


Sony develops highly efficient wireless power transfer system based on magnetic resonance

Sony develops highly efficient wireless power transfer system based on magnetic resonance

Technology / Engineering

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (13) | comments 7

Sony Corp. today announced the development of a highly efficient wireless power transfer system that eliminates the use of power cables from electronic products such as television sets. Using this system, ...


Brain

Scientists discover area of brain that makes a 'people person'

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created May 20, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (12) | comments 6

Cambridge University researchers have discovered that whether someone is a 'people-person' may depend on the structure of their brain: the greater the concentration of brain tissue in certain parts of the ...


Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest

Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest

Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry

created Jan 26, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new brain-imaging study is shedding light on what it means to "get lost" in a good book — suggesting that readers create vivid mental simulations of the sounds, sights, tastes and movements ...