Lorentz effect imaging

This paper presents a method that can detect minute electrical activity in a strong magnetic field. It uses displacement encoding to detect small spat ial displacement induced by Lorentz force on the conducting materials, henc e the term Lorentz effect imaging (LEI). With increased sensitivity from im proved hardware capabilities or signal averaging, this technique may be use d to detect spatial displacements induced by small currents comparable to n euronal electrical current. The initial results using the LEI technique may provide insight in assessing the feasibility of using MRI to non-invasivel y detect the neuronal electrical activities. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.