UC Berkeley physicists, engineers to build next-generation MRI brain scanner

(University of California - Berkeley) The success of fMRI in mapping brain activity will get a big boost as scientists led by UC Berkeley redesign scanners to provide 20 times the resolution of today's fMRIs. Using steeper magnetic field gradients and more and smaller detector coils, the NexGen 7T, funded by NIH, will be able to zoom in on areas of the brain in which all neurons are performing the same function, helping connect the brain's microcircuits with single-cell activity.