Quote from: sabutin on Aug 23, 2017, 08:56AMIf you haven't seen it, there is a very interesting thread about your MRI experience on the Facebook Trombone Pedagogy page. Gabe is involved, as am I and a number of other serious teachers of the trombone art and craft. Go check it out if you get a chance.
Thanks, Sam. I don't do Facebook so I can't see the Trombone Pedagogy FB page. But I'm glad you're all having a good discussion.
Here is a bit of information I added to my article this morning, at the request of Dr. Jens Frahm, to make something more clear:
"In my videos, the tip of my tongue was not always imaged as clearly as it is with some other players when it moves to the most anterior (frontal) position. The reason for this is the fact that I have a titanium dental implant in one of my eye teeth that created what is called a susceptibility artifact that led to some signal intensity alterations at that place in my mouth. This is sometime seen as quick flashes of light that some may mistake for spit/saliva. This metal implant did not, however, affect the clarity of the imaging in any other part of my oral cavity, and ongoing study with other trombonists who do not have such a dental implant will result in additional video with greater clarity of the tongue in its most frontal position."
As to the bells, the kind of metal that absolutely cannot be in the scanner room is anything that has iron (ferrous metal). This is because the powerful magnets that drive the MRI scanner would attract that metal and obvious problems would ensue. The ring in many brass instrument bell beads is made of steel, an alloy of iron, so YAMAHA made trombone bells with brass bead rings that were non-ferrous.
Someone also mentioned earlier that tattoos are problematic in MRI scanners and that is true. Many inks that today's tattoo parlor employ have metal in them. When I was in Göttingen, a young horn player with focal dystonia came to be tested. She had a large tattoo on her back and she had to sign a waiver of liability in order to continue with the exam. The danger with tattoos is not so much that the metal in the tattoo will interfere with the scanner since the amount is so small, but a tattoo can get very hot in a scanner and that can result in discomfort or even burns. This woman reported that her back got very hot in the scanner as a result of her tattoo although fortunately she was not burned. This is just another thing to keep in mind when you get a tattoo, since some day, you may need an MRI for medical purposes and some facilities won't allow people with tattoos in a MRI scanner.
And Sam - by the way, I was at the Historic Brass Symposium in NYC last month (premiering a new duet for serpent and ophicleide with Scott Robinson) and really enjoyed your performance as part of the James Reese Europe Band. I couldn't get up to the stage to see you but the concert was absolutely first rate. Bravo.
-DY
