Greetings!
Every few years I have to get an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) of my 2nd favorite organ (joking) my brain.
I have a brain injury and after about 13 years it persists, but I am not here to talk about that and to be honest I don’t want to, please don’t ask either.
What I am interested in here is the Science and technology that goes into an MRI.
All the images in this post are of my brain, taken today in a German hospital. This was my first experience getting an MRI in Germany and I can report it was a pleasant and prompt experience.
I want to apologize about the photo quality, but these images are .dcm files and I am not really tech savy enough to figure out how to transfer them while preserving the original quality.
The image above is called a T1 image of the brain (still my brain). The T1 weighted Image is the result of the frequency of the pulses from the MRI and this highlights fatty tissue in the image. The radiofrequency pulses from the MRI machine interact with the protons of the fat in my brain to illuminate them in the image.[see source below]
In other words, fat will appear brightly colored and the water inside the brain tissue will show up dark on the image. You can see the slight layer of fat under the skin over my skull and the water inside the brain tissue.
The two above images are T2 weighted images of my brain and the first thing you will notice is that they are much brighter than the T1 image. Here the radiofrequency pulses from the MRI machine interact with the protons of both the water and fat in my brain to appear in the image.
These final two images are also T2 weighted images and show another angle of the brain.
It's unbelievable that we live in an age where the technology is available to see your own brain! Mind-blowing (see what I did there).
The experience has left me humbled and it is left me with a strange feeling I cannot quite describe. Seeing your own brain gives you another perspective and I am glad to have it.
Thanks for checking out my brain, I told you I have one!
Referenced Article
