MRI compatibility of lower-extremity motion simulator: LoMS

This paper describes a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatibility assessment of our lower-extremity motion simulator called LoMS which provides gait-like motion for a wearer within his/her lying posture during functional MRI (fMRI) imaging. We confirmed that the existence and the movement of LoMS do not decrease the fMRI image quality when the distance between LoMS and the head coil of MRI is practical distance (more than 400 mm). We also confirmed that LoMS can operate properly in MRI environment, which is to measure own joint angle avoiding the noise from fMRI imaging. Then we show that the brain activity related to gait motion can be imaged during gait-like motion.