I’ve always wanted to have an MRI. I want to know how it feels to have all of my protons reoriented by a giant magnet. Would I be the same person after?
Not going to share the name of it? :)
I think it can handle a few other formats as well. Once they are .nii(.gz) files, then mricrogl (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/mricrogl) should be able to render it - of course, for a brain scan - this would be your whole head. Brain extraction is performed by more specialized software, but that would get you started.
Have you noticed any other changes due to your lobectomy? (Isn't the amygdala responsible for fear, among other things?)
If you can get into one of those studies, it's a free way to get a picture of your brain!
I think I may have skewed their results, though. MRI is a very meditative experience and I'm pretty sure I fell asleep for brief moments when I was (supposed to be) memorizing and recalling pictures and words they were showing me on a monitor as part of the university experiment.
I actually felt a strong sensation when I had a high resolution brain MRI for research, and I rather enjoyed it. It switched on and off a few times during the scan, and it felt a bit like having a back massage, or significant mechanical vibrations in my back, or that feeling like gentle electric currents during some therapies, except for switching on and off abruptly.
I asked about this after the scan because I had been told you don't feel anything. Surely it wasn't just my imagination, from the noises? Was it from machine vibrations? I didn't have any metal in my body except amalgam fillings, and they said those wouldn't affect it. And, if I could feel something, perhaps it wasn't as harmless as they made out.
They explained after, some people feel a stimulation of their peripheral nervous system when the RF is on, from the tens of kW of microwave energy beamed through the body. For a few people this sensation is too much, even painful, and they have to stop which is one reason for the patient having the mechanical alert button. But most people don't feel anything at all from the MRI, just psychological feelings associated with the strange noises and confinemnt.
They said it's a peripheral nerve stimulation sensation, a kind of phantom feeling, rather than a physical effect on the body being sensed by the nerves. Don't ask me why I felt it in my back given it was a head and neck scan.
I enjoyed how it felt when I didn't know what it was, as it felt like it might loosen up my back a bit. I was a bit disappointed to not feel anything the next time I had a head MRI, for a medical reason (thankfully nothing found). The research scan had twice the field strength of the medical scan, and presumably different RF settings. Perhaps that made the difference.
Not just a research area! Recently on the DXMP mailing list someone was asking about QA procedures for their 0.064 tesla scanner. You can buy permanent magnets that strong without much trouble. I was very surprised since I wasn't aware they were in production — even searching Web results for "low-field MRI" in due diligence for this comment, I still only find papers and projections. Nonetheless, the Hyperfine Swoop exists, and you can buy it today:
All the while trying not to laugh at the funny noises the machine makes which will blur the image and make the procedure even longer.
It really does sound like the machine is farting sometimes…
However if they use contrast it might have lasting effects. I only had that once and swear it made me feel dopey for weeks.
Only a tiny percentage of protons will actually get excited by a typical MRI. Like one in a million.