Lectures on Physics has been derived from Benjamin Crowell's Light and Matter series of free introductory textbooks on physics. See the editorial for more information....

Hallucinations during an MRI scan

During an MRI scan of the head, the patient's nervous system is exposed to intense magnetic fields. The average velocities of the charge-carrying ions in the nerve cells is fairly low, but if the patient moves her head suddenly, the velocity can be high enough that the magnetic field makes significant forces on the ions. This can result in visual and auditory hallucinations, e.g., frying bacon sounds.




Last Update: 2009-06-21