by Demand:
Authentic MRI images of fetuses are popular posts on social media.
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Future parents beware: MRI images of a fetus could induce nightmares. One example is a group of images that have been circulating for a long time on social media.
We received the images that were originally posted to them Twitter and Reddit in 2021.
The real reason they discourage MRIs during pregnancy is because then people would realize they are harboring nightmare demons and would be rightfully scared. pic.twitter.com/55zEeOofsP
— Katie (@ZiziFothSi) May 19, 2021
These ghoulish images became popular again mid May 2022 when the Twitter account @dhomochameleon shared the three images again, this time amassing over 61,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes on the social media platform. The images were also shared on Reddit in February 2024.
Spooky, right? Don’t say we didn’t warn you. The scariest part? The images above are real.
Snopes spoke with Jason Moody, a graduate research assistant and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin, who uses MRI technology to study age-related brain changes. He said the above MRI images appear to be authentic, and pointed our team to similar samples taken by researchers at Harvard Medical School.
Upon closer investigation, we confirmed that at least two of the images in the tweet had been previously shared by Harvard researchers, including the larger image on the left, which shows a fetus at 19 weeks, and the image lower right (24 weeks). We couldn’t find the top-right image, but Moody said he “strongly suspects” that image is also authentic.
Although it could be said that the fetuses in images are similar to the aliens from “Mars Attacks,” the wide eyes and devilish grins are no more than the result of MRI imaging technology. MRI uses magnetic fields and radio waves to image parts of the body, especially organs with a high concentration of water such as the brain. The brains and eyes appear so bright because MRI is “exquisite soft tissue contract.”
“In other words, MRI makes it very easy to distinguish between different types of soft tissue found in the body and ours is mostly soft tissue. Remember, we’re mostly water,” Moody explained. “One of the main features of these images is the significant signal differences between the eyes, the brain, the nose, and the rest of the person.”
In particular, the eyes are bright and easily stand out – and the reason for this is simple, explained Moody. Various tissues already have hydrogen protons in chemical environments surrounded by molecules. These protons rotate and lose energy at different rates. MRI measures the energy released by these rotating protons, which give a completely different signal and will appear differently when imaged by the “giant magnet” that is the MRI machine.
“We put a coil of wire around the patients as the protons rotate in their body and we use that coil to measure the energy released by the rotating protons as a current. That current is then converted into an image and it will look different different tissue types. each other based on how differently their protons behave (how quickly they lose energy).”
The appearance of a fetus in an MRI is also related to the position. Here is an example of a more “normal” looking fetal MRI.
Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
On the other hand, ultrasound sends sound waves into the body that bounce off organs, blood vessels, or a fetus, for example. The sound waves that take longer to return bounce off something in the body further away than those that returned faster. Sound waves also come back with different frequencies and from different directions which, when corroborated with other measurements, tell us how the target was shaped. While ultrasounds are usually given to a pregnant person because they are faster, cheaper and more readily available, an MRI may be given if doctors need a closer look at the fetal brain.
Sources:
Fetal MRI: Coronal Face. https://radnet.bidmc.harvard.edu/fetalatlas/face/coronalface/coronalface.html. Accessed 31 May 2022.
“Https://Twitter.Com/Dhomochameleon/Status/1524584292810059778.” Twitter, https://twitter.com/dhomochameleon/status/1524584292810059778. Accessed 31 May 2022.
Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Mri. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/mri.
hushitsu. msgstr “MRI Scan of Baby During Pregnancy.” R/Pics, 14 Nov. 2021, www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/qtnfnc/mri_scan_of_baby_during_pregnancy/.
“MRI Tech vs. Ultrasound Tech: A Career Comparison.” AIMS Education, https://aimseducation.edu/blog/career-comparison-mri-technologist-vs-sonographer. Accessed 31 May 2022.
Wayback Machine. https://web.archive.org/web/20220601000000*/https:/twitter.com/dhomochameleon/status/1524584292810059778. Accessed 31 May 2022.
