The pictures are the interesting results of an MRI scan on a 15-year-old boy who had his hair in ‘twists’ that were held in place with beeswax coloured black with iron oxide.
The iron oxide is magnetic and it interfered with the scanners’ magnetic field causing the rather lovely aura effect on the images.
This is not the only case of a hair style interfering with a brain scan in the medical literature. An earlier report is remarkably similar, as the iron oxide coloured braids of a 51-year-old lady caused similar flame-like patterns on the scans.
Link to MRI ‘aura’ in 15-year-old boy.
Link to MRI ‘aura’ in 51-year-old lady.
Mind Hacks 