The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) has recently unveiled a series of human brain images that have been captured by the world's most powerful MRI machine – Iseult Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, reported India Today.
Setting a new benchmark as the world's most powerful MRI scanner, the machine's cutting-edge technology boasts an unparalleled magnetic field strength of 11.7 Teslas.
The CEA claims that the images are the result of over two decades of rigorous research and development.
Adding more details, the report said that the CEA aimed to construct an MRI machine that is capable of providing insights into the healthy and diseased human brain with unmatched resolution.
Now the results are beginning to pour, with the machine offering a glimpse into the intricate workings of the brain's anatomy, connections, and activity.
Among other things, the report said that the Iseult MRI machine can acquire highly detailed anatomical images of the brain in just about four minutes.
Currently, the MRI scanners currently available in hospitals take hours to acquire highly detailed anatomical images of the brain and they operate at lower magnetic field strengths of 1.5 or 3 Teslas.
Adding more details, the images through the Iseult MRI machine can boast an impressive 0.2 mm in-plane resolution and 1 mm slice thickness. Also, it can capture a volume equivalent to a few thousand neurons.
Scientists claim that this machine would help open up new avenues for exploring the brain's mechanisms, which would include how mental representations are encoded and the neuronal signatures associated with consciousness.
Also, the ultra-detailed anatomical information through this machine will greatly enhance diagnostic capabilities and healthcare approaches for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
"Our goal is to investigate neurodegenerative diseases by 2026-2030, as well as other diseases that fall more under psychiatry, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. Cognitive sciences will also be of key importance in our research!”, India Today quoted Nicolas Boulant, the Head of the Iseult project, as saying.
Apart from this, the Iseult MRI machine's high magnetic field strength will improve the detection of chemical species with weak signals and could lead to breakthroughs in understanding various brain functions and disorders added the report.
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