I’m having one done on Monday. There’s nothing wrong with my brain that I know of, I have volunteered to participate in a study that has to do with traumatic brain injury, in the “normal” control group.
I’m told it takes an hour. I had an MRI on my knee once and it was very noisy. That’s all I know. I’d love to read your experiences with brain MRIs so I have a better idea what to expect.
When I had mine done, the technician asked me if I wanted to listen to music, and what genre I’d like. I guess the earphones don’t interfere with the scan. The tunes are there to help drown out the other noises from the machine, which you can still hear but I guess it’s better with music than without. They also put a cage over my face and put a panic button in my hand. Some people do indeed panic from the enclosed space, and they can press the button if they start to get freaked out. You will also hear the technician’s voice and they will give you instructions and they also may ask how you’re doing in there.
It’s mostly just a lot of trying to lie as still as possible while the machine moves around the tube you are in.
It’s loud. Louder than having your knee scanned since your head is right in the machine surrounded by the noise.
And I recall having a plastic frame (called a coil) secured over my head to hold my head absolutely still. Apparently the coil also acts as an antennae to receive the signals from the scanner so it is a necessary discomfort.
K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK. Tap. Tap. Tap. REEEEEERRRUHHH SQUEEEAL!
It’s claustrophobic but fine. Depends on the experimenter how exactly they stabilize your head. Just avoid moving and it’s surprisingly easy to fall asleep in one. With a normal MRI this wouldn’t be a huge problem, but this is an fMRI so definitely don’t move or fall asleep; be honest and tell them you need a break between trials if you’re dozing off.
Edit: you may likely have a button press task to do. You can move your hand just not your head.
I had one on my shoulder one time. The tech placed my hands on my belly and told me to be still. Well, when I breathe my chest will rise and fall so they fussed at me for moving. I left there in tears. The Dr. sent me to a different place and prescribed Valium and my arms were placed at my sides. Dumbasses at that first place. The last test of that sort was a CT on my sinuses. I was told to hold still and the techs did ask how I was doing. The noise as described above is exact and it was over pretty quickly. Not an MRI but I think the same sort of machine. Good Luck.
Had one for recurrent migraines. They played music, but the MRI drowned it out. They placed a small mirror so I could see behind me, out the end of the machine, which I did find helpful.
And of course, afterward you have to tell people, “They did an MRI of my brain but didn’t find anything.” 
I had my third last week. They check to make sure there is nothing metallic in or on your body, earplugs in, earmuffs over the top, pillow under knees, buzzer in hand. The cage over your face leads to fierce nose itching because you can’t get to it. It has a mirror positioned so you can see out. I have heard worse beats hitting the random button on play music but nothing toe tapping. This was a super machine that threw in some unexpected shaking of me, I don’t think the standard ones do that but I may be misremembering. If not claustrophobic it really isn’t a big deal.
I had a brain MRI last year for migraine. I fell asleep in the machine.
I hope you’re not claustrophobic. I’m generally not, and the one time I had an MRI, I felt like I was in a coffin.
Was it a while ago? My first was 2004 and that was a much smaller machine I needed to go all the way in to. Last year and on Wednesday I only went in to a larger machine up to my shoulders.
Have had it done twice. As mentioned, head secured in a bracket and inserted into the machine, body sticking out, where “K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK! K-CHUNK. Tap. Tap. Tap. REEEEEERRRUHHH SQUEEEAL!” was dubiously enjoyed. Was given a choice of audio programming (plastic tube earphones like in a 1970s airliner). Halfway through, a pause to inject gadolinium contrast medium into my bloodstream and have a go again (that bit may not be essential to the specific test).
All in all the most annoying part about both visits was the first time around the annotation of the observation of my brain as “unremarkable”. Why, really… and so’s your face, doc, I got something for you to remark on right here…
About 2007, I think? So yeah, itwould’ve been awhile ago. (Damn, time flies!)
Also where are you going? I’ve been to one of UC Berkeley’s machine but I bet it’s changed since.
I’ve had a few done on head, neck, and more remote body areas. To what others have said, I can add this:
Metals can create funny results in the MRI, and different MRI procedures have handled this differently for me. Sometimes they make you remove all the metal you can, such as a wedding band, and sometimes they don’t. I hit the panic button one time because I still had my wedding band on, and it started vibrating, and I thought I was screwing up by not having removed it. They pulled me out and asked what the problem was, and when I told them, they said the wedding band didn’t matter and chided me for hitting the button (how was I supposed to know?).
I do have a sizable metal plate spanning the bottom half of the length of my neck, with several little sub-plates and ten screws. And with this in place I have had several MRIs of my neck, as well as CT scans of my neck. Each time I’ve had this done the prescribing doctor has said I can get either MRI or CT, and then complained about the results and sent me back for whichever one I didn’t pick the first time. The significance of this is that metals can interfere with the process and create artifacts that make the image less clear or less useful.
But all these experiences involved metals that were not ferromagnetic, such as gold and titanium. I think having iron or nickel or cobalt in you would be very different, and there would be forces acting on the metal. I guess if you had a piece of gadolinium metal in you and it was chilly, the same things would happen, but gadolinium’s Curie point is around room temperature so at body temperature it’s not attracted to magnets. If you want an interesting time that will reshape your ideas about how magnets attract stuff, buy a little piece of gadolinium and play with it.
I had one 10 years or so ago on my neck, and nearly did the same.
The one I had last year was in some ways more comfortable (I went in feet first), but in some more uncomfortable (I have a shoulder problem now I didn’t back then, and there wasn’t really any position to put me that didn’t hurt), so I was unhappily fully conscious the whole time.
I had a brain MRI (I do not have MS). I was told I’d have to hold still; I asked if it was OK to wiggle my toes, since those would actually be outside the machine. The tech looked at me suspiciously, decided I was serious and said ok, I could wiggle my toes but my toes only. I used wiggling my toes to stave off claustrophobia, because I figure that starting to hyperventilate and say “out out I need out out out” wouldn’t be very good for the colored pictures. Eventually I almost fell asleep: the machine I was in made some interesting noises at the start but then it was a low, steady buzz, so I almost went zzzzzz myself.
In general I’m not claustrophobic. But I’m pretty broad across the shoulders so the MRI is tighter than a coffin to me. During my multiple brain scans this year I was given a Xanax. I’m not a drug guy and usually turn down most prescriptions but I took that. And I will any time I need to take a MRI.
UCSF Mission Bay.
I am quite large around (they really had to stuff my knee into that thing that was supposed to hold it still, I have fat thighs). For a brain MRI, I presume I would only go in as far as the shoulders? Mine aren’t particularly large.
I’ve had two, for different bumps on the head. The only thing I can think to add is to keep your eyes shut–not tightly, but don’t blink. That messed up one of my scans. Apparently, the machine does not like fluttering lashes.
I had one about 6 weeks ago on a part of me I’d rather not mention.
Yeah, noisy. They gave me a choice of Pandora channels on the headphones. I chose classical music which was good since with the noise I’d never have made it through a song.
It was full body. I didn’t think it was very tight, but I’m a claustrophile, so I felt that being in a tube was cool.
The main thing was that I had to keep perfectly still in the region of the test. That was the hardest, especially since it was on and off again for about 45 minutes.
I guess I did, since they didn’t have to retake anything.