Researchers used the world's most powerful MRI to get brain scans that are 10 times as detailed as a hospital MRI — take a look

• French researchers used a powerful MRI machine to create detailed brain scans of about 20 people.
• The images are nearly 10 times more detailed than a hospital MRI's scans.

Researchers have unveiled images of the human brain from the world's most powerful MRI, which could one day lead to breakthroughs in treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases. The images are almost 10 times as detailed as those of a typical hospital MRI.

Researchers at France's Atomic Energy Commission scanned the brains of about 20 people with the magnetic resonance imaging machine, called Iseult.

The volunteers only had to spend four minutes in the machine for the scientists to take remarkably detailed images, according to a press release. Trying to capture similar scans with an ordinary machine would take hours.

"With this machine, we can see the tiny vessels which feed the cerebral cortex, or details of the cerebellum which were almost invisible until now," Alexandre Vignaud, a researcher on the project, told Agence France-Presse.

A machine powerful enough to capture thousands of neurons

The strength of MRI magnets is measured in a unit called Teslas. Most hospital machines are between 1.5 and 3 Teslas. France's machine is 11.7 Teslas.

With such a powerful magnet, the MRI takes high-resolution images so detailed they can show a few thousand neurons or nerve cells. By comparison, MRIs typically record 600,000 neurons, according to the University of California, Berkeley.

Think of it like trying to spot a squirrel in a picture of a backyard. It might be easier if you could focus on a tree or even a specific branch.

Such detailed images could help researchers look for changes in the brain and learn new information about how the organ functions. For example, some scientists at France's Atomic Energy Commission want to look at how and where the drug lithium moves in the brain to better understand how to treat bipolar disorder.

The US is working on its own high-powered MRI machines

Though not quite as powerful as Iseult, there are MRI machines at the University of California, Berkeley and Duke University with 7 Tesla and 9.4 Tesla magnets, respectively.

Researchers at these and other institutions are hoping to use high-powered MRIs to study animal and human brains to look for changes related to Alzheimer's, dyslexia, dementia, and other diseases.

Physicians at the Cleveland Clinic, for example, used a 7 Tesla MRI machine to find the location of a tiny lesion that was causing a patient's epileptic seizures. Images from regular MRIs were too low-resolution for them to show up, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

It will be several years before doctors can use Iseult and other similar MRIs to diagnose patients since they're still studying the effects such a powerful magnet has on the human body.