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The Basics of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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EEG - fMRI

Abstract

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the signal that is measured usually arises from the nuclei of the tissue’s hydrogen atoms (i.e. protons). A proton possesses a physical property, its spin, which behaves roughly speaking like a compass needle: each spin has a small magnetic dipole moment and aligns in an external magnetic field. If tissue is brought into the strong magnetic field inside the magnetic resonance (MR) scanner bore, spins will align either antiparallel or parallel to the magnetic field B. At the field strengths relevant here, a tiny majority of the spins assume the latter alignment and their magnetic moments add up, giving rise to a net macroscopic magnetisation M which is parallel to B, representing a state of equilibrium (Fig. 1, left). Thus, the existence of this magnetisation inside the magnetic field is an indicator of the presence of protons, and the measurement of M with a certain spatial resolution can be used to construct a proton image.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Hospital, Brain Imaging Center, Haus 95H, Schleusenweg 2-16, 60528, Frankfurt-Main, Germany

    Ralf Deichmann

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  1. Ralf Deichmann
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  2. Ulrike Nöth
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  3. Nikolaus Weiskopf
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Correspondence to Ralf Deichmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatrische Klinik, Universitätsklinikum München, Nußbaumstr. 7, München, 80336, Germany

    Christoph Mulert

  2. Inst. Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom

    Louis Lemieux

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Deichmann, R., Nöth, U., Weiskopf, N. (2009). The Basics of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In: Mulert, C., Lemieux, L. (eds) EEG - fMRI. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87919-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87919-0_3

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