Brain Scan!

I had an MRI brain scan, yesterday, after a CT scan found "nothing remarkable" in my head. I was told that it would take some time and be a noisy experience.

There was a lot of noise, but at times I recognized the source sounds of a fantastic music. It's very percussive. Afterward, I asked whether anyone had a recording of the machine; the operator didn't know of any. So, I searched the web and quickly found one person's description of an MRI for a wrist injury:

... The table then started to rise and slide into the machine. A few seconds later, the sound show began.

First, a somewhat distant repetitive rhythm kicked in, followed by a series of synth-like bleeps. Then it got LOUD. There were all kinds of odd sounds resembling horns, jackhammers, alarms, sci-fi blips and industrial percussion. One stretch sounded just like a time-expanded drum loop. The sound was incredible. ...

Then I found Project MRI. There, you can hear music tracks created from the sounds made by an MRI machine. Project MRI states, "All the songs on this CD were based on a set of sample recordings of a real MRI machine. The artists manipulated the samples with various effects and audio software, using the output as their final composition, or using it as a backdrop for adding additional recorded tracks from various Instruments."

Two raw MRI sound samples can be heard at a Center for Diagnostic Imaging page. The sounds heard while undergoing an MRI are louder and may be more interesting, or irritating, depending upon your taste, but those samples may give you an idea of what the raw machine sounds are like.

Always in the background, even before the scan began, there was a hammering sound. I was told that that sound is the noise made by the machine's cooling system. The rate of that sound varies as the scan proceeds and varies with the machine's cooling demands. The non-background sounds occur when electrical currents flow through the machine's gradient coils, producing magnetic fields that interact, audibly, with the machine's core magnetic field.

In a couple of days, my doctor will have the scan's results. Is there anything in my head? Anything at all?

Update, February 25, 2011: My doctor's office called to say, "The MRI is negative: no tumors; no masses." This adventure began when I experienced an overnight hearing loss in one ear. Doctors call it "sudden hearing loss."