New brain atlas-mapping the human brain in vivo with 7.0 T MRI and comparison with postmortem histology: Will these images change modern medicine?

Human brain imaging with magnetic resonance at 7.0 Tesla (T) can reveal the brain's architecture with resolution equivalent to that obtained from thin slices in vitro. In vivo images can provide tissue type identification with a greater clarity than that available in vitro without special stains. The coil design is an 8 or 12 channel phased array antenna tuned for 7.0T The individual coils are arranged 8 or 12 loops in a "crown" configuration. Image acquisition is 6 minutes for 15 slices of 2 mm thickness with in-plane resolution of 0.25 mm using a gradient echo pulse sequence. While others have achieved good resolution in human brain imaging, this paper demonstrates a pulse sequence with a specialized radiofrequency coil that achieves an uniformity and resolution not shown in previous studies at 7.0T Our new images demonstrate very fine details of the midbrain, brainstem, and hippocampal area that have not been previously achieved in living human subjects. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.