The Ohio State University Medical Center will soon become home to the strongest magnetic resonance imaging machine in the world.The imaging system, or MRI, will be at least five times more powerful than average MRI scanners and twice as strong as the six highest-powered machines currently in existence, said Dr. Pierre-Marie Robitaille, an associate professor of radiology, who is leading this project and is among many scientists, professors and students involved with designing the machine.Introduced in the 1980s, MRI systems use radio waves, rather than radiation used in X-rays, to provide doctors with cross-sectional images of the body in three dimensions. In many cases, this made it possible for doctors to avoid cutting open the body to diagnose a patient.Pictures from the new MRI will be much more detailed and of an ‘unparalleled image quality,’ said Dr. Bradford Stokes, associate dean of research for OSU’s College of Medicine. ‘Because of the strength of this magnet we’re not only going to be able to look at anatomy, we’re going to be able to look at the chemistry of tissues, which is really an enormous advance,’ Stokes said. It will be possible to actually trace the path of a drug and observe how the body processes it, which may make it possible to determine how effective the drug actually is, Stokes said.The superconductive magnet is being manufactured by Magnex Scientific, a British corporation located near Oxford, while nine OSU colleges are contributing to the design, development and research of the system. The new MRI is expected to contribute to advancements in many fields, including psychiatry, chemistry, physics and engineering. In the field of psychiatry, the high resolution of the images may make it possible to understand how humans process information. ‘Now we can do functional imaging, such as observing which part of the brain is used to choose the letter X, for example,’ said Dr. Donald Chakeres, head of neuro-radiology at OSU’s Medical Center. ‘With this system we’re hoping that we’ll be able to not only get images faster and better, but be able to ask more serious questions about the brain, such as why someone chooses that letter.’ This could create new understanding about emotional disorders, such as depression, Chakeres said. Because this is the first time that humans will be studied with a machine of this power, it may take a long time to get the machine up and running for clinical use, Chakeres said. In anticipation of such hurdles, the MRI will initially be used for research-oriented purposes, Chakeres said.The superconductive magnet is scheduled for completion in June 1997 and should arrive in Columbus in October.