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Updated: May 2, 2026
Measuring the Influence of Magnetic Vestibular Stimulation on Nystagmus, Self-Motion Perception, and Cognitive Performance in a 7T MRT
Published on: March 3, 2023
Does assessment of personal exposure matter during experimental neurocognitive testing in MRI-related magnetic
Lotte E van Nierop1, Yvette Christopher-de Vries, Pauline Slottje
1Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Division of Environmental Epidemiology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Purpose:
To determine whether the use of quantitative personal exposure measurements in experimental research would result in better estimates of the associations between static and time-varying magnetic field exposure and neurocognitive test performance than when exposure categories were based solely on distance to the magnetic field source.
Methods:
In our original analysis, based on distance to the magnet of a 7 T MRI scanner, an effect of exposure to static magnetic fields was observed. We performed a sensitivity analysis of test performance on a reaction task and line bisection task with different exposure measures that were derived from personal real-time measurements.
Results:
The exposure measures were highly comparable, and almost all models resulted in significant associations between exposure to time-varying magnetic fields within a static magnetic field and performance on a reaction and line bisection task.
Conclusion:
In a controlled experimental setup, distance to the bore is a good proxy for personal exposure when placing subjects at fixed positions with standardized head movements in the magnetic stray fields of a 7 T MRI. Use of a magnetic field dosimeter is, however, important for estimating quantitative exposure response associations.
