All patients with newly diagnosed temporal lobe epilepsy should have a high-resolution MRI scan with at least a 1.5-Tesla MRI, although the availability of a stronger magnet like 3-Tesla is increasing resolution.

However, for many people with epilepsy, no structural cause for their epilepsy can be found, and so their MRI results are said to be 'normal'. Other MRI techniques have many other uses; showing us how our brains work, and what functions or activities each area of the brain is responsible for.