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 spatial displacement induced by Lorentz force on the conducting materials, hence the term Lorentz effect imaging (LEI). With increased sensitivity from improved hardware capabilities or signal averaging, this technique may be used to detect spatial displacements induced by small currents comparable to neuronal electrical current. The initial results using the LEI technique may provide insight in assessing the feasibility of using MRI to non-invasively detect the neuronal electrical activities.