In a major breakthrough in the field of neuroimaging, scientists have developed a new scanner called FMRI Nexgen 7t that offers a tenfold increase in spatial resolution compared to existing 7t MRI scanners. This groundbreaking development opens up new possibilities for studying neurons with a volume as small as 0.1 microLitra, comparable to grains of sand.
The Nexgen 7T scanner, developed by an international team of scientists led by Siemens engineers and funded by the University of California in Berkeley and the BRAIN initiative of the National Institute of Health, represents a significant advancement in neuroimaging technology. It provides images with a resolution one hundred times higher than widely available FMRI devices and ten times more accurate than other 7T FMRI scanners.
Sergey Dumulen, a neuroscientist and director of the Spinoza neuroimagorization center in the Netherlands, describes the new scanner as an “exciting step forward.” Its capabilities include providing detailed images of the functional organization of neurons in the cerebral cortex, brain stem, and cerebellum.
One of the key features of the Nexgen 7T scanner is its new gradient coil, which creates a magnetic field using an additional third layer of conducting wires and an enhanced cooling system. The system also incorporates an expanded transmission and receiving radio frequency mechanism, along with an increased number of channels in the receiving antennas (16 and 128 channels, respectively). These advancements pose new challenges in data collection, transmission, and encoding.
David Finberg, a co-author of the study from UC Berkeley and Advanced Mri Technologies, highlights the numerous hardware improvements in the scanner that have contributed to achieving higher resolution.
Not only do these technological innovations expand the possibilities for brain examination, but they also pave the way for potential clinical applications. Fainberg notes that although the development is primarily focused on basic research, promising results could quickly be adopted for clinical use.
Furthermore, the improved resolution offered by the Nexgen 7T scanner can prove valuable in other MRI studies, including those involving functional coherence and brain metabolism.
While there is currently only one Nexgen scanner at UC Berkeley, it is theoretically possible to upgrade any of the more than 100 existing 7T MRI scanners worldwide to the same advanced specifications. This potential accessibility makes the new technology available to a wide range of researchers globally.