Brain and Behavior Psychology Coursework Research Paper (Coursework Sample)

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The Strongest Scanners: Researchers are pushing noninvasive brain imaging to new limits
In an article titled “The Strongest Scanners”, freelance journalist Anna Nowogrodzki carefully traces the milestones that have been made in the field of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Presently, many hospitals across the globe perform imaging with machines of magnetic field strengths between 1.5T and 3T. With cutting-edge research, however, devices with higher magnetic field strengths have been developed and can be found in various research labs worldwide. Typical strengths in this higher range are 7T and 10.5T with the former being more common than the latter. The first 10.5T scan a human was performed in December 2017 while scanners that are more powerful are currently used to scan animals.
Anna notes that the advantage of these scanners is the better signal-to-noise ratio, which gives a higher-resolution scan of the body or a faster scan at relatively lower resolution. Whereas a typical 3T MRI machine resolves the brain image to the millimeter, the more powerful 7T machine will resolve to half a millimeter. The flipside is that those scanners are more massive, cost more, require more expertise to operate and call for more attention to safety. Besides these technical challenges, the strong magnetic fields have been known to cause dizziness, vertigo and nystagmus (involuntary movement of eyeballs). These side effects, however, are temporary. Two challenges that are currently under research are overheating of body tissue caused by strong fields and high sensitivity of scanners to slight body movements.