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How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

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Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#51

Post by dessimus »

koliber wrote: post #29

Completely tangential story. A few months back I was getting an MRI. I stashed my belt, coins, keys, and phone. The machine started its clicking and thumping when I realized I had my wedding band on my ring finger. Immediately my mind raced to a video I once saw of an MRI machine propelling a fire extinguisher across the room. I braced for my finger to be torn off while I slowly took the wedding band off using only o…

I forgot to take my tungsten carbide wedding band off as well for an MRI, nor did the MRI techs say anything. It was in the middle of the MRI scan that I realized it was still on and then my fingers on the ring hand kind of started to feel fairly warm, but not certain it that was actually the ring picking up magnetic energy or if it was psychosomatic, but no harm became of it.

I looked it up afterwards and tungsten apparently as little to no magnetic effects, but depending on the amount of carbon used in it, it can.

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#52

Post by Aurornis »

FriedPickles wrote: post #19

I was intrigued to see a lady at the crosswalk the other day wearing earbuds with thick tubing instead of wires. Googling it, I discovered they were "EMF free headphones". Apparently enough people think electromagnetic radiation in the ears is a problem that there are now dozens of these headphones on the market that put the driver half way along the cord, with tubes proceeding to the earpiece.

> Apparently enough people think electromagnetic radiation in the ears is a problem

Even Andrew Huberman, one of the most popular health science podcasters, has dabbled into anti-EMF quackery. On one podcast he claimed that his Bluetooth headphones produced notable "heat effects", implying that the electromagnetic energy was enough to produce palpable heat in his body.

It's obviously placebo effect to the extreme (physically impossible given the amount of RF energy) but nevertheless he made the claim. Millions of people listen to that podcast.

Of course, people are catching on that Andrew Huberman isn't really a good source of scientific information (nor really a good person, given recent revelations) but the damage is done.

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#53

Post by mb7733 »

caseyohara wrote: post #18
djhope99 wrote: post #9

I thought these were a nice idea when I had my MRI the other day, little did I know that I would barely be able to hear anything over the noise of the MRI machine. Ear plugs were better, kept out the noise of the MRI machine and let me drift into a trance.

I recently got an MRI and the technician asked me what I wanted to listen to on the headphones. I said "Something relaxing, do you have ambient music?". This turned out to be a terrible choice; the music was so quiet I could barely hear it. Earplugs would have been better. I had some in my pocket that I brought but it was too late. So after the claustrophobic panic subsided and I realized I was left in there with not…

You're not alone. The "music" combined with the visual sensory deprevation can be a trip. Some machines are completely featureless on the inside and I've found it can feel like I'm floating in a bit open space, not crammed into a magnetic tube!

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#56

Post by ben1040 »

treve wrote: post #37
snakeyjake wrote: post #21

>The only headphone tech that I was aware of or that I'd ever really considered I guess I'm old now because this style of headphone was present on every model of passenger aircraft in the sky when I was a young adult.

I've never heard this before! When I started flying it was just the 2 mono jacks that you still see on planes that haven't been updated (always wondered why it wasn't just a stereo jack) Pretty surprising to hear there's air/sound tubes rigged on to every seat on a plane. Seems like the sound tubes ended in the 70's: https://apex.aero/articles/sound-tube-surprising-history-air...

I flew some overseas trips on Delta 767s in the late 1990s that still had the tube headphones. I was pretty intrigued by the concept, you could hold your hand up to the tube holes in the arm rest and hear the music echo off your hand.

Either on the headphones themselves or in the little overwrap bag there was a note to leave them on the aircraft when you deplane, because they (obviously) wouldn’t work elsewhere.

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#57

Post by jmspring »

snakeyjake wrote: post #21

>The only headphone tech that I was aware of or that I'd ever really considered I guess I'm old now because this style of headphone was present on every model of passenger aircraft in the sky when I was a young adult.

This is certainly one of those things that has changed. I remember them too. A different era in flying.

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#58

Post by astrodust »

snakeyjake wrote: post #21

>The only headphone tech that I was aware of or that I'd ever really considered I guess I'm old now because this style of headphone was present on every model of passenger aircraft in the sky when I was a young adult.

Twelve channels of the weirdest and/or lamest music you'd ever heard in your life, all in a faint, tinny form that makes AM radio sound audiophile quality.

Re: How do MRI Headphones work? (2022)

#59

Post by anfractuosity »

Interesting, sound kind of like a stethoscope.

I bought a kind of unusual type of headphone from aliexpress a little while ago, that essentially consists of an induction loop you wear round your neck and tiny magnets you put in your ear, I'm somewhat scared to try them out as I don't especially want them to get stuck in my ear.

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