Talk:Magnetization transfer

giving this article some attention
As evidenced by the burgeoning number of papers and talks on magnetization transfer at NMR and MRI conferences, and the sorry state of the article, i think it warrants some attention. The existing focus of the article was (and still is, not counting the intro paragraph) on saturation transfer between bound and free water populations, especially in the context of MRI. This is probably justified based on the 2001 review article by Henkelman, Stansz, and Graham, which is a crappy paper. The term "Magnetization transfer" was used before the bound/bulk water experiments, (e.g. Bittl & Ingwall [1985] 'A 31P NMR Magnetization Transfer study'; Forsen & Hoffman [1963] a labile hydroxyl proton saturation transfer experiment, the first of its kind; etc.)

A quick search in google scholar or similar search engine shows that all sorts of NMR and MRI experiments refer to magnetization transfer, from solid-state NMR, to multi-quantum COSY, to heteronuclear experiments. Evidently the MRI community got in into their heads (starting maybe 20 years ago) that magnetization transfer specifically refers to saturation transfer between bound and free water populations. Yes, a saturation transfer experiment can be conceived as transfer of magnetization from the unsaturated to the saturated water population, so it is still a form of magnetization transfer, however it is far from the only phenomenon that has been called magnetization transfer. The fact is, NMR papers back in the 1960's were discussing magnetization transfer techniques, before MRI was even invented.

And then there is the argument from semantics, which goes something like this: Magnetization + transfer is a broad lexical construction, and given the variety of pathways for spin energy exchange between nuclei, it is counterproductive to assert that bound-to-bulk saturation transfer in MRI is the specific meaning of "Magnetization transfer".

So the direction in which I believe this article should be developed is towards inclusion of a few (maybe 4 or 5) of the most important NMR and MRI techniques that have been called "magnetization transfer". -137.53.91.187 (talk) 18:22, 30 April 2015 (UTC)