The Sound of Fast MRI: Speed, Acoustics, and Sequence Innovation
This session highlights recent advances in fast MRI, focusing on EPI and its applications, acoustic noise reduction, and emerging gradient technologies enabling ultrafast and quiet imaging. It also explores a unique perspective of MRI as a musical instrument, demonstrating how pulse sequence design can be used to compose music, adding a creative dimension to MRI research and enhancing the subject experience.
| Session duration: | 60m |
| Intended audience: | Physicists, Radiologists |
| Moderators: | Rita Schmidt, Felix Glang, Ruediger Stirnberg (Confirmed: Rita Schmidt, Felix Glang) |
| First Speaker: | Ruediger Stirnberg, Title: Expanding the Reach of 3D EPI: Susceptibility, Angiography, Function, and Beyond (Confirmed: No) |
| Second Speaker: | Rita Schmidt, Title: "Making Fast fMRI Quieter: Acoustic Noise Reduction via Destructive Interference" (Confirmed: Yes) |
| Third Speaker: | Edwin Versteeg, Title: "Supersonic MRI: Pushing Gradient Performance Beyond Conventional Limits" (Confirmed: Yes) |
| Fourth Speaker: | Felix Glang, Title: "When Pulse Sequences Become Music: Exploring the Sound of MRI" (Confirmed: Yes) |
Session description
Modern MRI widely relies on Echo-Planar Imaging (EPI) and its variants for rapid image acquisition. Recent advances have significantly expanded the capabilities of EPI, enabling a broad range of applications including anatomical, structural, angiographic, and functional imaging. These developments are driving unprecedented gains in spatial and temporal resolution, opening new opportunities for studying the human body—and in particular, the human brain.
However, fast MRI comes with an important challenge: high acoustic noise. The rapid gradient switching required for EPI makes these sequences inherently loud, an issue that is further exacerbated at ultra-high field strengths. Addressing this challenge requires both engineering solutions—such as acoustic noise reduction strategies—and rethinking gradient performance, including the emergence of supersonic gradient concepts that are becoming feasible in recent years.
At the same time, MRI can be viewed through a different lens—as a large musical instrument. By understanding the mechanical vibrations induced by gradient waveforms and their transformation into sound, it becomes possible not only to mitigate noise, but also to compose music. This opens the door to treating pulse sequence design as a form of composition, transforming MRI scanning into a more pleasant experience for subjects.
This session brings these themes together, highlighting advances in fast EPI, acoustic noise control, gradient innovation, and creative approaches to MRI sound. Interactive elements, including musical demonstrations, will be incorporated throughout the session.
The program will be the following:
- Expanding the Reach of 3D EPI: Susceptibility, Angiography, Function, and Beyond ()
This talk will focus on recent advances in 3D EPI enabling a wide range of imaging contrasts within a unified framework.
- Making Fast fMRI Quieter: Acoustic Noise Reduction via Destructive Interference (Rita Schmidt)
This talk will demonstrate how modeling the acoustic spectrum of EPI acquisitions enables optimized sequence timing for reduced acoustic noise.
- Supersonic MRI: Pushing Gradient Performance Beyond Conventional Limits (Edwin Versteeg)
This talk will explore novel gradient insert technologies that enable ultrafast imaging with significantly reduced acoustic output.
- When Pulse Sequences Become Music: Exploring the Sound of MRI (Felix Glang)
This talk will include a demonstration using the open-source Pulseq framework, illustrating how pulse sequences can be transformed into sound—and composed into music. Attendees will gain both technical insights and a new perspective on MRI, leaving with the tools and inspiration to explore and compose on their own systems.