What do pediatric neurologists do?

How much can neurologists see into and magnify the human brain with MRI machines, can they see a neuron inside?

• the hippacampus. With todays technology how far inside the human brain can neurologists see with their MRI, or other X ray machines. Is it possible for them to see a neuron in the hippacampus, they range from around one micron to 100 microns in size inside the hippacampus. I think they use MRI or X ray machines to find brain tumours or other illnesses like cancer in the brain. and they can use certain types of rays to stop the tumours or cancers in the brain. So can neurologists magnify the human brain to see a a neuron in the hippacampus, or see even a neuron being created in the hippacampus when someone forms a memory. Thank you for your help with this question.

• Answer:

  No, the spatial resolution of a 3T structural MRI (most MRIs are either 1.5T or 3T strength) is barely good enough to discern the subfields of the hippocampus (dentate gyrus versus CA1 for example) and definitely not good enough for single- neuron imaging. A 7T magnet - the strongest used with humans- has about a 100µm resolution. The body of a single hippocampal pyramidal neuron is much smaller than that. A 17T strength MRI, which is only used with animals, may be able to image a single neuron. 17T strength MRIs are only used experimentally. Incidentally, the formation of a new memory does not necessarily mean new neurons are formed, it just means that new connections are formed between existing neurons.