Magnetic resonance imaging gives doctors the ability to peer into the human body without surgery. But while the medical community has X-rayed patients for a century, MRI has been available only since the late 1970s. The technology can show details of soft tissue that X-rays miss, making the images especially useful to doctors, and opening new avenues for diagnostics and treatment.

Celebrating 10 years of research accomplishments, Stanford's Richard M. Lucas Center for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging has pioneered MRI technology while developing new techniques that benefit patients with stroke, cancer, heart disease and brain disorders.

Advanced imaging technology, such as the MRI machine above, provides a detailed look inside the human body. Researchers at Stanford's Lucas Center are pushing the imaging envelope with new techniques.

"The Lucas Center is particularly good at finding solutions to problems that our collaborators and colleagues come to us with," said Michael Moseley, PhD, associate professor of radiology. "We're pushing the limits of what we can do because if we can improve diagnostic imaging we can make a big impact."

MRIs usually rely on the fact that various parts of the human body contain different amounts of water. Because the body is 65 percent water, MRIs can show details in soft tissues, like the brain, that X-rays never could reveal.

MRI employs science-fiction-like technology. A patient is placed inside a magnet that can easily be thousands of times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field. This causes the patient's hydrogen atoms, a building block of water, to organize into two groups. The groups are almost equal in size, but there are a few oddball hydrogen atoms left over.

Radiologists send harmless radio waves through the patient to excite the hydrogen atoms. When the radio waves stop, the hydrogen atoms calm down by releasing their own tiny radio signals. With the help of computers, the atoms' "cool down" period can be caught as an image, giving doctors a detailed view.

Moseley takes magnetic imaging a step further. He's interested in measuring how fast water moves through the brain's white matter -- basically the brain's wiring. "It's kind of like a roadmap," he said.

Advanced MRI techniques being pioneered at the Lucas Center
produce images that in effect
map the wiring of the brain.

Imaging the diffusion of water through the brain helps Stanford physicians decide on the best treatment for stroke patients. Such patients have oxygen-starved nerve cells that no longer have the energy to move water around. The cells show up bright and clear using Moseley's technique but not in regular MRIs.

"Stanford brought together major players in neurology, psychology and neuroradiology to make innovative use of magnetic resonance in medical treatment," he said. "We're putting together maps that provide the basis for understanding what part of the brain does what. If you know that, you can figure out what happens in the brain when someone has a stroke, what happens during Alzheimer's, and why someone doesn't read well. We're still working on this, but it's all right in our hands."

Moseley, like others at the center, collaborates with a range of Stanford researchers. He's now working with Judith Ford, PhD, to find out if schizophrenics have abnormal white matter wiring, and Edith V Sullivan, PhD, to study how the brain ages. Both are associate professors of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. Moseley also collaborates with Allan Reiss, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral science, who is studying the brains of young autistic patients.

Two years ago, Moseley collaborated with John Gabrieli, PhD, associate professor of psychology, to study how wiring differed in people with dyslexia. They found the white matter in dyslexic patients was disorganized in a specific portion of the brain located above and a little behind the left ear called the temporal-parietal lobe. When better organized, the junction is associated with the ability to read quicker.

"There's a lot of excitement about diffusion tensor imaging, and this is one of the first examples that shows this technique applied to a human problem," Gabrieli said. "We don't know if lots of reading strengthens the area or if you have a propensity to be a good reader if the area is better organized. If we could get to the point of predicting if a 3 year old will have trouble reading, then there could be a magnetic resonance program to make sure they're spotted."

In the long run, Gabrieli believes researchers may develop a paper test based on MRI research to screen for dyslexic children. But even if that doesn't work, the three-minute MRI scan required costs only $500, small in comparison to what society ends up paying for dyslexic children who fall through the cracks.

"I can't praise the Lucas Center enough. They're outstanding scientists and outstanding people to work with," Gabrieli said.