7T Imaging

In the Physics Group, our 7T work focuses on data acquisition, reconstruction and processing methods with the aim of obtaining very high resolution functional and anatomical images that are rich in information, but that can be acquired with high quality in reasonable scan times. It is important that our methods are ultimately suitable for patient groups.

We obtained our first images on the 12th of September 2019. Examples of early acquisitions are shown below.

Functional MRI

We obtain images rapidly to be able to look at brain function using functional MRI (fMRI). The sensitivity of 7T allows us to get these images with very high resolution too. In this way we can investigate how brain regions communicate at very fine intra-cortical spatial scales.

High spatio-temporal resolution 3D-EPI images at 7T: We can get the images below with 0.8 mm isotropic resolution every 3.8s.

Quantitative MRI

These quantitative anatomical maps of the relaxation brain's relaxation properties tell us about different microstructural environments throughout the brain. With 0.6 mm isotropic resolution, the voxels in these images have a tiny volume of just 0.22 micro-litres!

We can get information about the anatomy of the brain by using models to map specific tissue properties, such as the relaxation parameter maps shown on the left. Different quantitative parameters are sensitivity to different aspects of the tissue microstructure.

The R1 map (top row) on the left has strong contrast between gray and white matter in the brain because of its high sensitivity to myelination levels.

The R2* map (lower row) is more sensitive to features like iron that disturb the local magnetic field. This parameter helps us visualise small nuclei in great detail, e.g. the undulations around the dentate nucleus in the cerebellum (most inferior image) and fine details in the iron rich pallidum and putamen (next image).

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