Study: MRI scan technicians can experience negative neurocognitive effects

MRI work­ers expe­ri­ence tran­sient neu­rocog­ni­tive effects (News Medical):

“Indi­vid­u­als work­ing in the vicin­i­ty of mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (MRI) machines may expe­ri­ence tran­sient neu­rocog­ni­tive effects when mov­ing their heads, research demonstrates…Study par­tic­i­pants who com­plet­ed stan­dard­ized head move­ments while inside the stray sta­t­ic mag­net­ic field of a 7 Tes­la (T) MRI sys­tem expe­ri­enced a tem­po­rary decrease in atten­tion, con­cen­tra­tion, and visu­ospa­tial ori­en­ta­tion that did not occur in sham conditions…The find­ings add to evi­dence that MRI sta­t­ic fields — which are present once the machine is switched on even when imag­ing is not under­way — can cause sen­so­ry symp­toms such as nau­sea, dizzi­ness, and a metal­lic taste in the mouth.”

Study: Effects of mag­net­ic stray fields from a 7?Tesla MRI scan­ner on neu­rocog­ni­tion: a dou­ble-blind ran­domised crossover study (Occu­pa­tion­al Envi­ron­men­tal Medicine)

• Objec­tive: This study char­ac­teris­es neu­rocog­ni­tive domains that are affect­ed by move­ment-induced time-vary­ing mag­net­ic fields (TVMF) with­in a sta­t­ic mag­net­ic stray field (SMF) of a 7?Tesla (T) MRI scanner.
• Con­clu­sion: Neu­rocog­ni­tive func­tion­ing is mod­u­lat­ed when exposed to move­ment-induced TVMF with­in an SMF of a 7 T MRI scan­ner. Domains that were affect­ed include attention/concentration and visu­ospa­tial ori­en­ta­tion. Fur­ther stud­ies are need­ed to bet­ter under­stand the mech­a­nisms and pos­si­ble prac­ti­cal safe­ty and health impli­ca­tions of these acute neu­rocog­ni­tive effects.

Source of pic: Big­Stock­Pho­to