Realtime MRI video shows what your tongue looks like when you speak

Tom Richell
Saturday 28 April 2018 15:09 BST
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Realtime MRI video shows what your tongue looks like when you speak

Fascinating video has been released that shows the workings of the human tongue when a person is speaking.

The footage was captured using ‘realtime MRI’ technology developed by physicist Jens Frahm of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry.

It shows the movements of the mouth and pharynx during speech and the way the lips, tongue and larynx (voice box), coordinate to form vowels and consonants.

Frahm, 67, developed the technology in 2010 revolutionising the way MRI is used when treating patients.

As a result of his work doctors were able to, for the first time, film processes inside the human body in real time.

His breakthrough came after he first transformed MRI in the 1980s, around 12 years after its invention by Paul Lauterbur in 1973, with something called FLASH MRI. His work accelerated the speed at which the scan worked to a point where it could finally be used to diagnose patients’ illnesses and problems.

Honouring his contribution to science and medicine, Frahm has now been nominated for the European Inventor Award 2018 by the European Patent Office.

 

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