Dear Users

This Thursday (4.15-5.15 pm) Mark Hymers and Padraig Kitterick will be giving a talk on "Safe levels of noise exposure in MR scanning at YNiC". Please see below for the talk abstract.

Everyone is welcome to attend.

Best wishes Rebecca

Abstract: In 2011 Mark Hymers, Padraig Kitterick, Rebecca Millman and Quentin Summerfield were awarded a small grant by the Department of Psychology to investigate the feasibility of carrying out auditory fMRI research safely at YNiC. This talk will present the main findings of the work funded by this grant and should be 1) of interest to anyone who uses MRI and 2) of particular interest to those who wish to carry out auditory fMRI experiments.

MR scanners generate very loud levels (>105 dB SPL) of noise. Exposure to intense noise can potentially damage hearing and the effects of exposure to very loud sounds are cumulative over the total exposure time. Researchers who use MR scanners must protect their participants against hearing damage by ensuring that exposure to noise levels in MR remain within the UK legal limits.

Important considerations that will impact the design of all MRI experiments are 1) the duration of the structural scans/fMRI experiments and 2) the amount of attenuation of unwanted noise provided by hearing protection available at YNiC. For auditory fMRI experiments, researchers must also take into account the effects of adding the presentation level of auditory stimuli to the scanner noise. The talk will provide an overview of the guidelines written by Hymers et al. in the full report and present easy-to-use tools for calculating levels of noise exposure in MRI experiments.