neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical

abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples
of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakness, poor coordination, loss
of sensation, seizures, confusion, pain and altered levels of consciousness. There are
many recognized neurological disorders, some relatively common, but many rare. They may be
assessed by neurological examination, and studied and treated within the specialities
of neurology and clinical neuropsychology.
Interventions for neurological disorders include preventive measures, lifestyle
changes, physiotherapy or other therapy, neurorehabilitation, pain
management, medication, operations performed by neurosurgeons or a specific diet.[1][2] The World
Health Organization estimated in 2006 that neurological disorders and their sequelae (direct
consequences) affect as many as one billion people worldwide, and identified health
inequalities and social stigma/discrimination as major factors contributing to the
associated disability and their impact.[3]
Gradient coils are used to spatially encode the positions of protons by varying the magnetic field
linearly across the imaging volume. The Larmor frequency will then vary as a function of position in
the x, y and z-axes.
Gradient coils are usually resistive electromagnets powered by sophisticated amplifiers which permit
rapid and precise adjustments to their field strength and direction. Typical gradient systems are
capable of producing gradients from 20 to 100 mT/m (i.e., in a 1.5 T magnet, when a maximal z-axis
gradient is applied, the field strength may be 1.45 T at one end of a 1 m long bore and 1.55 T at the
other[50]). It is the magnetic gradients that determine the plane of imaging—because the orthogonal
gradients can be combined freely, any plane can be selected for imaging.
Scan speed is dependent on performance of the gradient system. Stronger gradients allow for faster
imaging, or for higher resolution; similarly, gradient systems capable of faster switching can also
permit faster scanning. However, gradient performance is limited by safety concerns over nerve
stimulation.
Some important characteristics of gradient amplifiers and gradient coils are slew rate and gradient
strength. As mentioned earlier, a gradient coil will create an additional, linearly varying magnetic field
that adds or subtracts from the main magnetic field. This additional magnetic field will have
components in all 3 directions, viz. x, y and z; however, only the component along the magnetic field
(usually called the z-axis, hence denoted Gz) is useful for imaging. Along any given axis, the gradient
will add to the magnetic field on one side of the zero position and subtract from it on the other side.
Since the additional field is a gradient, it has units of gauss per centimeter or millitesla per meter
(mT/m). High performance gradient coils used in MRI are typically capable of producing a gradient
magnetic field of approximate 30 mT/m or higher for a 1.5 T MRI. The slew rate of a gradient system
is a measure of how quickly the gradients can be ramped on or off. Typical higher performance
gradients have a slew rate of up to 100–200 T·m−1·s−1. The slew rate depends both on the gradient
coil (it takes more time to ramp up or down a large coil than a small coil) and on the performance of
the gradient amplifier (it takes a lot of voltage to overcome the inductance of the coil) and has
significant influence on image quality.

Radio frequency system[edit]

The radio frequency (RF) transmission system consists of an RF synthesizer, power
amplifier and transmitting coil. That coil is usually built into the body of the scanner. The power of the
transmitter is variable, but high-end whole-body scanners may have a peak output power of up to
35 kW,[51] and be capable of sustaining average power of 1 kW. Although these electromagnetic
fields are in the RF range of tens of megahertz (often in the shortwave radio portion of
the electromagnetic spectrum) at powers usually exceeding the highest powers used by amateur
radio, there is very little RF interference produced by the MRI machine. The reason for this, is that
the MRI is not a radio transmitter. The RF frequency electromagnetic field produced in the
"transmitting coil" is a magnetic near-field with very little associated changing electric
field component (such as all conventional radio wave transmissions have). Thus, the high-powered
electromagnetic field produced in the MRI transmitter coil does not produce much electromagnetic
radiation at its RF frequency, and the power is confined to the coil space and not radiated as "radio
waves." Thus, the transmitting coil is a good EM field transmitter at radio frequency, but a poor
EM radiation transmitter at radio frequency.
The receiver consists of the coil, pre-amplifier and signal processing system. The
RF electromagnetic radiation produced by nuclear relaxation inside the subject is true EM radiation
(radio waves), and these leave the subject as RF radiation, but they are of such low power as to also
not cause appreciable RF interference that can be picked up by nearby radio tuners (in addition, MRI
scanners are generally situated in metal mesh lined rooms which act as Faraday cages.)
While it is possible to scan using the integrated coil for RF transmission and MR signal reception, if a
small region is being imaged, then better image quality (i.e., higher signal-to-noise ratio) is obtained
by using a close-fitting smaller coil. A variety of coils are available which fit closely around parts of
the body such as the head, knee, wrist, breast, or internally, e.g., the rectum.
A recent development in MRI technology has been the development of sophisticated multi-element
phased array[52] coils which are capable of acquiring multiple channels of data in parallel. This
'parallel imaging' technique uses unique acquisition schemes that allow for accelerated imaging, by
replacing some of the spatial coding originating from the magnetic gradients with the spatial
sensitivity of the different coil elements. However, the increased acceleration also reduces the
signal-to-noise ratio and can create residual artifacts in the image reconstruction. Two frequently
used parallel acquisition and reconstruction schemes are known as SENSE[53] and GRAPPA.[54] A
detailed review of parallel imaging techniques can be found here:[55]
An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by
accelerating electric charges.[1] It is the field described by classical electrodynamics and is the
classical counterpart to the quantized electromagnetic field tensor in quantum electrodynamics. The
electromagnetic field propagates at the speed of light (in fact, this field can be identified as light) and
interacts with charges and currents. Its quantum counterpart is one of the four fundamental forces of
nature (the others are gravitation, weak interaction and strong interaction.)
The field can be viewed as the combination of an electric field and a magnetic field. The electric field
is produced by stationary charges, and the magnetic field by moving charges (currents); these two
are often described as the sources of the field. The way in which charges and currents interact with
the electromagnetic field is described by Maxwell's equations and the Lorentz force law.[2] The force
created by the electric field is much stronger than the force created by the magnetic field.[3]
From a classical perspective in the history of electromagnetism, the electromagnetic field can be
regarded as a smooth, continuous field, propagated in a wavelike manner. By contrast, from the
perspective of quantum field theory, this field is seen as quantized; meaning that the free quantum
field (i.e. non-interacting field) can be expressed as the Fourier sum of creation and annihilation
operators in energy-momentum space while the effects of the interacting quantum field may be
analyzed in perturbation theory via the S-matrix with the aid of a whole host of mathematical
techniques such as the Dyson series, Wick's theorem, correlation functions, time-evolution
operators, Feynman diagrams etc. Note that the quantized field is still spatially continuous;
its energy states however are discrete (the field's energy states must not be confused with its energy
values, which are continuous; the quantum field's creation operators create multiple discrete states
of energy called photons.)