Advanced MRI - M267: About the course

Who is the course for?:

This course is intended for the student who wishes to pursue independent research in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, including functional MRI, and for people who wish to have a deeper understanding of the technique. You will get an understanding of the physical principles of the MR signal and the instrumentation for converting them into images and spectra that is much more detailed than would usually be seen by the practicing radiologist

While we will not do practical lab in pulse programming (because this is a very hardware and implementation specific skill) we will cover the structure of the control "sequences" that are used in modern imagers. With the background gained from this course, you should be able to implement new ideas in imaging technology, but only after you have also studied the details of the scanner control language

What to Expect:

Class will meet twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday at 1:30p.m. Except for the first class, and the lab tour (on 1/21) we will be meeting in the Brain Mapping Conference room in the Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center. Most classes will last 1 and one-half hours.

I favor computer-aided instruction wherever possible. The class has a web site located at:

that I will try to keep up to date with teaching materials, assignments and course announcements. Outside of the first session, I will do as much as possible of my in-class presentation on the computer, so that we can post the in-class notes on the web site.

There will be a take home mid-term and a final (possibly take home as well) that will form the majority of your grade. I will try to make problem sets each week. These will be handed out on Thursday and due the following Tuesday. The purpose of the problem sets is primarily to give some relatively simply exercises that will help you to consolidate the knowledge from the course. In the event that you have troubles on the mid-term or final, I will also take into account your work on the problem sets - otherwise, they are for your own enjoyment.

We will have two laboratory sessions. The first, on January 21, will be during class hours and is intended to familiarize you with the actual equipment and the scanning process from the more or less typical users perspective. If one of the students wishes to volunteer, we will scan his or her head; otherwise, I will arrange for another volunteer. Before actually entering the lab, Ralph Lee will give you a safety orientation.

The second lab session will be at a time and date to be determined based on student needs. In this session, you will perform some hands-on experiments exploring the effects of various parametric variations in the scans. You will also get to see some of the electrical waveforms and other techie aspects of the scanner.

We will cover the topic of MRI with an emphasis on intuitive, though quantitatively accurate, understanding. While this is not a primarily mathematical course (and I am not a mathematician), some of the topics require a moderate amount of advanced math. We will assume that you can do simple integrals (polynomials and natural exponentials) and will introduce the Fourier transform. I do not usually believe that math offers much in the way of intuition, but some principles are just plain hard to intuit, so that mathematical rigor may be the only way.

Business:

I can be reached best by e-mail (mscohen@ucla.edu), and I will be happy to meet with students by appointment (310/980-7453), though I will not be holding office hours. Michael Zeineh will be your TA for the course and has plans to set up office hours, probably on Mondays.

To help me in my book-keeping, and in the computer-aided instruction, please sign in at:

This will enter you into the course database and give me basic contact information. Though you are asked for your telephone number, this information will not be made public to anyone without your permission.

Texts:

There is no assigned text for the course, as adequate materials are available on-line or from handouts. On the other hand, the web site lists several texts, and Michael Zeineh has come up with others, that you might want on your bookshelf, or for comfortable bed-time reading.