World’s most powerful MRI scans first image of human brain

Sackle [फ्रांस]: The world’s most powerful MRI scanner has provided the first images of the human brain, reaching a new level of accuracy that is expected to shed more light on our mysterious brains and the diseases that plague them. France’s Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) researchers first used the machine to scan pumpkins in 2021. But health authorities have only recently given them the green light to scan humans. Over the past few months, about 20 healthy volunteers have become the first to enter a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, located just south of Paris. It is located in the Plateau de Saclay region in the United States, which is home to many technology companies and universities. “We have seen a level of precision in CEA that has never been reached before,” said Alexandre Vignaud, a physicist working on the project. The magnetic field created is 11.7 Tesla, a unit of measurement named after inventor Nikola Tesla.

This power allows the machine to scan images with 10 times greater accuracy than MRIs commonly used in hospitals, whose power typically does not exceed three Tesla. On the computer screen, Vignaud He compared the images taken by this powerful scanner, called Iseult, with images taken from a normal MRI. “With this machine, we can see details of the tiny vessels nourishing the cerebral cortex, or cerebellum, that were almost invisible until now,” he said. “The accuracy can hardly be believed,” said France’s Research Minister Sylvie Ritaleau, herself a physicist. “Inside a cylinder five meters (16 feet) long and high, the machine contains a 132-tonne magnet, powered by a coil carrying a current of 1,500 amperes.

It has a 90 centimeter (three foot) opening for humans to slip through. The design is the result of two decades of research by a partnership between French and German engineers. The United States and South Korea are working on equally powerful MRI machines. have been used, but have not yet begun scanning images of humans. One main goal of such powerful scanners is to refine our understanding of the brain’s anatomy and which areas are active when it performs particular tasks. Scientists have already used MRI to show that when the brain recognizes particular things – such as faces, places or words – different areas of the cerebral cortex become active. Scientific director of the project Using a power of 11.7 Tesla will help Iseult “better understand the relationship between brain structure and cognitive functions, for example when we read a book or perform mental calculations,” Nicolas Boullant said.

Researchers hope the power of the scanner could also shed light on the elusive mechanisms behind neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, or psychological conditions like depression or schizophrenia. “For example, we know that a particular area of ​​the brain – the hippocampus – is involved in Alzheimer’s disease, so we hope we will be able to find out how the cells work in this part of the cerebral cortex,” said CEA researcher Anne-Isabelle Etienvre. Scientists also hope to find out That’s how some medications used to treat bipolar disorder, such as lithium, distribute through the brain. The strong magnetic field created by the MRI will give a clear image of which parts of the brain are targeted by lithium.

This could help identify which patients will respond better or worse to a drug. “If we can better understand these extremely harmful diseases, we should be able to diagnose them earlier – and so They need to be treated better,” Etiennevre said. In the near future, regular patients won’t be able to use Iseult’s powerful power to look inside their brains. Boullant said the machine “is not intended to be a clinical diagnostic tool, but We hope that the knowledge learned can be used in hospitals”. In the coming months, a new generation of healthy patients will be recruited to have their brain scanned. This machine will not be used on such patients for many years. Will be done.