Induction of Extremely Severe Nausea via Vestibular Activation on a 7 Tesla MRI Scanner

Extremely severe nausea was experienced by four subjects positioned prone on a 7T scanner table with their arm extended overhead for a wrist examination and their head positioned approximately 10-20 cm above the magnet's central axis. Movement through the large static and spatial field gradients of current 7T MRI scanner magnets typically causes mild vestibular activation which is well tolerated by most individuals. However, when positioned off-axis, the head moves through regions of even larger and more rapidly changing magnetic fields which in the current study were sufficient to induce the extremely severe nausea. Ensuring the head remains on-axis mitigates this effect.