Thursday, January 15, 2009

Can Magnetic Resonance Imaging Detect Electrical Currents in a Nerve?

Can Magnetic Resonance Imaging detect electrical current associated with a nerve action potential? Some researchers have suggested that it is possible by taking advantage of the Lorentz force (the force on a current in a magnetic field) to produce motion of the nerve. Professor Brad Roth, of the Department of Physics, and his colleague Peter Basser at the National Institutes of Health analyzed the problem in a paper published in the January 2009 issue of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (Volume 61, Pages 59-64). They concluded that "this displacement is orders of magnitude too small to be detected by conventional MRI methods."

Summary Can Magnetic Resonance Imaging detect electrical current associated with a nerve action potential? Some researchers have suggested that it is possible by taking advantage of the Lorentz force (the force on a current in a magnetic field) to produce motion of the nerve.

Created by Heather Mattiello (heather.mattiello@caretech.com) on Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Modified by Brad Roth (roth@oakland.edu) on Thursday, March 12, 2009
Article Start Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009