eli5 If MRI machines a super powerful magnets, how come they do not disrupt or damage the electrical impulses in our bodies when we are scanned?

Question

eli5 If MRI machines a super powerful magnets, how come they do not disrupt or damage the electrical impulses in our bodies when we are scanned?

In: 6

Answer 1

I’m seeing some correct comments about how our bodies are different from wires, etc. Those are correct, but I would like to add that MRI machines *can* interfere with the electrical signals in our body. Particularly for larger people, it is possible to have involuntary muscle spasms during an MRI. However, the big magnet is a static field: it is always pointing in the same direction with the same strength. An MRI also involves radio frequency pulses (kind of like a microwave), and sometimes those RF pulses will trigger muscle contractions, sort of like those things that shock your abs from the 2000s.