Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Resonancia magnética (MRI)
- Date
- 1973-1977 · confidence high
- Place
- Stony Brook University, New York, United States; University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- Paul Lauterbur (Stony Brook) and Peter Mansfield (Nottingham); Nobel 2003; Raymond Damadian (first whole-body scanner, 1977)
- People
- 👤 Paul C. Lauterbur1929–2007👤 Peter Mansfield1933–2017👤 Raymond Damadian1936–2022
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Imaging of soft tissue based on the resonance of hydrogen nuclei in an intense magnetic field, without ionising radiation. It is the best technique for the brain, joints and cancer.
Damadian claimed priority and publicly protested his exclusion from the 2003 Nobel Prize.
What it led to
- Neuroscience with functional MRI (fMRI, 1990)
- Demand for helium and superconducting magnets
- Precision imaging medicine and diagnostic AI
Built on
- Fourier series and transform1807
- Helium1868
- Hilbert spaces and functional analysis1906-1912
- Electron spin1925
- Nuclear magnetic resonance in condensed matter1946
- Fast Fourier transform1965
- Computed tomography (CT scanner)1971
- nuclear magnetic resonance (Bloch, Purcell)
- superconducting magnets
Made possible
- Deep brain stimulation1987
- functional resonance (fMRI)
- neuroimaging
- brain-computer interfaces (planning)