Researchers from several institutions believe they have achieved a breakthrough in MRI that would enable brain scans to be performed more than seven times faster than currently possible.
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| Colored tracks show the direction of nerve fiber bundles, providing a 3D image of the axonal pathways in the white matter (cortex) of a resting human brain. The entire 3D image was scanned in 8.5 minutes instead of 30 minutes. Image courtesy of David Feinberg. |
The lead author of the study is David Feinberg, a physicist and adjunct professor in UCB's Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and president of the company Advanced MRI Technologies in Sebastopol, CA.
Feinberg noted that because the technique works on all modern MRI scanners, the impact of the ultrafast imaging technique will be immediate and widespread at research institutions worldwide.
In addition to broadly advancing the field of neuroimaging, the discovery will have immediate effects on the Human Connectome Project, funded last year by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to map the connections of the human brain through functional MRI (fMRI) and structural MRI scans of 1,200 healthy adults.
The faster scans are made possible by combining two technical improvements invented in the past decade that separately boosted scanning speeds two to four times more than what was already the fastest MRI technique, echo planar imaging.
Physical limitations of each method prevented further speed improvements, but together their image accelerations are multiplied, Feinberg said.
Related Reading
Functional MRI helps detect effects of nicotine on brain, January 4, 2011
Functional MRI may track aberrant pediatric brain development, September 13, 2010
Study offers strategy for managing incidental findings on fMRI, July 6, 2010
Resting fMRI exam may predict stroke and brain injury outcomes, March 30, 2010
fMRI helps find schizophrenia symptoms, January 20, 2009
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![Examples of ultrasound findings and techniques. (A) Images in a 39-year-old male patient with a mass in the left thigh. The mass is heterogeneous on the B-mode US image (compared with the patient in D) and showed increased microvascularity (superb microvascular imaging [SMI]) and shear-wave elastography (SWE) values. Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy (with pleomorphic rhabdomyosarcoma in surgical specimen). (B) Images in an 18-year-old male patient with a mass in the left leg. The mass is hypoechoic on the B-mode image, with no other findings suggestive of malignancy. The lesion is in contact with the cortex of the tibia, which is slightly irregular. CT revealed a doubtful anteromedial tibial erosion. The microvascular study demonstrated high vascularization, suggestive of malignancy. Periosteal Ewing sarcoma was diagnosed with both histologic and immunohistochemical confirmation. (C) Images in a 69-year-old female patient with a lump growing on the outside of the left leg. Multiple SWE examinations were performed (please note the high values obtained in the measurements, whereas the color map highlights the stiffness relative to adjacent tissues). SMI showed areas of increased vascularization to target for sampling. Undifferentiated spindle cell sarcoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with residual leiomyosarcoma in the surgical specimen after neoadjuvant therapy. (D) Images in a 56-year-old female patient with a mass in the right thigh. The mass is heterogeneous at both B-mode ultrasound (similar to patient A) and MRI (coronal T2-weighted spectral attenuated inversion recovery [SPAIR]; T1-weighted pre-contrast and postcontrast imaging), which even shows uptake after the administration of paramagnetic contrast material, which is traditionally suggestive of malignancy. Low values at SMI and elastography are suggestive of benignity. Spindle cell lipoma was diagnosed at biopsy, with atypical spindle cell lipomatous tumor in the surgical specimen.](https://img.auntminnieeurope.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/08/images-radiol250278fig2.APCFLSvX6p.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
