INTRODUCTION The rapid progress in computerized medical image analysis and computer-aided diagnosis has propelled medical imaging into one of the most important sub-fields in scientific imaging¹. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is most widely used imaging technique in the medical field. It is a noninvasive, flexible imaging tool and does not require ionizing radiation such as x-rays. It reveals information about human soft tissue anatomy that are not externally visible². In clinical practice, MRI is used to distinguish pathologic tissue from normal tissue. A Brain MRI also called as MR brain scan or head scan a neurological test which produces a high-resolution image of the human head. A MRI scan of the head is a safe and painless test that ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY www.computerscijournal.org ISSN: 0974-6471 June 2012, Vol. 5, No. (1): Pgs. 135-141 An International Open Free Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal Published By: Oriental Scientific Publishing Co., India. Analysis of Imaging Artifacts in MR Brain Images SOMASUNDARAM K. and KALAVATHI P. Image Processing Lab, Department of Computer Science and Applications, Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed University Gandhigram – 624 302, Tamil Nadu, India. (Received: February 12, 2012; Accepted: June 04, 2012) ABSTRACT MRI brain images are widely used in medical applications for research, diagnosis, treatment, surgical planning and image guided surgeries. These MR brain images are often corrupted with various imaging artifacts and may affect the performance of brain image processing techniques. In this paper, we listed and identified the causes of the common imaging artifacts in MR brain images. Keywords: MR brain image, imaging artifacts, magnetic resonance imaging. uses a magnetic field and radio waves to produce detailed images of the brain and the surrounding tissues. MRI is more versatile and shows better resolution of subtle details than a CT scan, so it is used commonly to study and evaluate the patients with neurological complaints to investigate for brain diseases. There are primarily three types of MR brain images, T1, T2 and PD, which focus on different contrast characteristics of the brain tissues. A Sample of the same slice on the three types are shown in Fig. 1. These image types can also be taken in three orientations, axial, corona and sagittal (see Fig. 2). The axial orientation of the MR head image is viewed from neck to head. The coronal orientation begins at the tip of the nose and ends at the back of the head. The sagittal orientation extends from ear to ear. By interpreting