In cinema, fade to black is a term used when, usually at the end of a film, the image transitions out, and the screen becomes dark. If one wasn’t aware of the precise meaning of this jargon, just the phrase itself is evocative, which is perhaps why Metallica titled a well-known song Fade to Black, even though that lyric occurs nowhere in the track.
Fade to Black, surprisingly melancholic for the genre, ends up being one of my favorite Metallica songs. As a junior attending, I won a contest for “seats” in their mosh pit. During that Camden, NJ concert, when they played (at least the beginning of) Fade to Black, even the mosh pit became eerily quiet.
The lyrics, however, provide a poignant insight into the thoughts of someone in a deep depression. Fade to Black is a cri de coeur of pain. (Another evocative song about similar subject matter, is Blink 182’s Adam’s Song-which shares the same raw lyrical emotionality.)
What is notable is what the Metallica singer (James Hetfield) believed, triggered his depression. The index event was felt to be the theft of their equipment from a van in Boston. A crime was the supposed genesis of one of the great metal songs of all time.
Looking back on my career in medicine, much has changed. But two of the more prominent changes have been an increased awareness of the chronicity of most diseases and the medicalization of psychiatry. For the former, it is rare that disorders (other than infectious or traumatic ones) are truly acute. We now take it for granted the nearly all musculoskeletal, spine, cardiac and respiratory conditions are the result (and continuation) of long-standing processes. Cumulative diseases might be a useful turn of phrase. That etiologic concept is distinctly different than how I was trained.
In terms of mental health disorders, these are diseases with biological underpinnings, like any other neurologic (as well as non-neurologic) illnesses. Boy, were we late to come to that obvious conclusion. We should appreciate the contribution of many of this society’s outstanding researchers made in advancing this understanding.
James Hetfield’s depression wasn’t actually caused by the theft of his amplifier any more than my disc herniation was caused by a pivot I did on a given day in 2010.
My back pain does bring me down some days. Although sometimes debilitating, it’s not close to being so severe as to provoke a feeling of fading to black. Perhaps just bad enough, for me to play on nearly continuous repeat, that expressive metal ballad.
Mark E. Schweitzer, MD
—
Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 64, Issue 1
Pages: spcone, 1-321
July 2026
Cover Image
Free Access
Qinfang Miao, Yefei Shi, Bo Li, Rui Luo, Ke Yang, Hongzhang Huang, Kadierya Yibulayin, Guanye Yu, Wenhui Peng, Jing Tian, Weixia Jian, Haikun Qi
Page: spcone | First Published: 10 June 2026
Multimodal assessment of coronary microvascular function in control, T1DM, and T2DM mice. (A) Representative arterial spin labeling cardiac MR (ASL-MRI) perfusion maps at rest and stress in diastole and systole. (B) Representative transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) waveforms showing coronary flow velocity (CFV). (C, D) Diastolic and systolic myocardial blood flow (MBF) at rest and stress. (E) Myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR). (F) CFV at rest and stress. (G) Coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR), reduced in T2DM mice. MBF, MPR, and CFV were analyzed using two-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s post hoc test. CFVR was analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni’s post hoc test. **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, and ns indicates not significant. By Miao et al. (136–150).
Issue Information
Free Access
Pages: 1-6 | First Published: 10 June 2026
Review
Optimizing Cine Cardiac MRI: Technical Advances and Clinical Applications
Sadegh Dehghani, Ali Rajabi, Amirhossein Rahmati, Negar Omidi
Pages: 9-29 | First Published: 27 April 2026
Bone Magnetic Resonance Imaging: From Conventional Methods to AI‐Driven Solutions
Yi He, Rahman Ud Din, Lieve Morbée, Haisheng Yang
Pages: 30-54 | First Published: 12 April 2026
Research Article
Pelvis
Hao Cheng, Jie Lu, Ming Liu, Wei Zhang, Jinxia Zhu, Min Chen, Dan Wu, Chunmei Li
Pages: 55-66 | First Published: 15 March 2026
Kumi Harada, Yuki Himoto, Yoshitsugu Chigusa, Seiichi Tomotaki, Yasuhisa Kurata, Atsushi Yoshida, Yuriko Muramatsu, Yu Hidaka, Satoshi Morita, Yuka Kuriyama Matsumoto, Aki Kido, Mitsuhiro Kirita, Sachiko Minamiguchi, Masaki Mandai, Yuji Nakamoto
Pages: 67-76 | First Published: 09 January 2026
The Performance of MR Cytometry Imaging in Differentiating High‐ and Low‐Grade Bladder Cancer
Li Chen, Chaoyang Jin, Erjia Guo, Fan Liu, Yuming Wang, Jinxia Zhu, Xiaoxiao Zhang, Jiahui Zhang, Zihao Xu, Xin Bai, Yongfei Wu, Zipei Tan, Xiaoyu Jiang, Thorsten Feiweier, Zhengyu Jin, Junzhong Xu, Hua Guo, Gumuyang Zhang, Huadan Xue, Diwei Shi, Hao Sun
Pages: 77-87 | First Published: 11 January 2026
Editorial
Abdul Nashirudeen Mumuni
Pages: 88-89 | First Published: 11 January 2026
Research Article
Musculoskeletal
Open Access
Mika T. Nevalainen, Olli Nykänen, Jyri Järvinen, Antti Kemppainen, Lasse Räsänen, Victor Casula, Martijn Cloos, Riccardo Lattanzi, Mikko J. Nissi, Miika T. Nieminen
Pages: 90-109 | First Published: 25 March 2026
Editorial
Tamotsu Kamishima
Pages: 110-111 | First Published: 28 March 2026
Research Article
Cardiac
You-Qi Liu, Tian-Yi Zhang, Yue Cai, Hang Zhou, Lian-Ming Wu, Ren-Hua Lu, Wei Fang, Qin Wang, Hao Yan, Yao Xu, Jia-Ying Huang, Hai-Jiao Jin, Jian-Xiao Shen, Yin Zhou, Dong-Aolei An, Liang Ying, Shan Mou
Pages: 112-123 | First Published: 10 March 2026
Tian-yi Zhang, Youqi Liu, Shuai-zheng Chen, Lian-Ming Wu, Jun Pu, Yao Xu, Xiao-qian Yang, Qisheng Lin, Binghua Chen, Qin Wang, Wei Fang, Renhua Lu, Hong Cai, Jiayi Yan, Haijiao Jin, Chaolu Feng, Dong-aolei An, Shan Mou
Pages: 124-135 | First Published: 27 March 2026
Qinfang Miao, Yefei Shi, Bo Li, Rui Luo, Ke Yang, Hongzhang Huang, Kadierya Yibulayin, Guanye Yu, Wenhui Peng, Jing Tian, Weixia Jian, Haikun Qi
Pages: 136-150 | First Published: 19 March 2026
Editorial
Cian M. Scannell, Robert J. Holtackers
Pages: 151-152 | First Published: 26 March 2026
Research Article
Cardiac
Large Language Models for Cardiac MRI Diagnosis Based on Standardized Text Descriptions
Hongbo Zhang, Junjie Zhou, Chen Zhang, Guanyu Lu, Zhihui Lu, Lanling Wang, Lili Wang, Huiwen Gong, Lei Zhao, Xiaohai Ma
Pages: 153-165 | First Published: 23 April 2026
Editorial
Mohammad Abd Alkhalik Basha, Mohamed M. A. Zaitoun
Pages: 166-167 | First Published: 29 April 2026
Research Article
Neuro
Junghwa Kang, Dayeon Bak, Na-young Shin, Hyun Gi Kim, Yoonho Nam
Pages: 168-183 | First Published: 19 March 2026
Open Access
Misha P. T. Kaandorp, Andras Jakab, Christian Federau, Peter T. While
Pages: 184-200 | First Published: 30 March 2026
Sergio Valencia, Emil Barkovich, Fedel Machado-Rivas, Phillip L. Pearl, Simon K. Warfield, Onur Afacan, Camilo Jaimes
Pages: 201-208 | First Published: 30 March 2026
Open Access
A MR Fingerprinting Development Kit for Quantitative 3D Brain Imaging
Rasim Boyacioglu, Thomas Kluge, Guido Buonincontri, Wei-Ching Lo, Stephan Kannengiesser, Mathias Nittka, Arashdeep Kaur, Andrew Dupuis, Dan Ma, Chaitra Badve, Mark A. Griswold, Yong Chen
Pages: 209-217 | First Published: 28 March 2026
Open Access
Tryggve Holck Storås, Sofie Lysholm Lian, Ingrid Mossige, Jørgen Riseth, Siri Fløgstad Svensson, Grethe Løvland, Geir Ringstad, Kent-André Mardal, Kyrre Eeg Emblem, Kaja Nordengen
Pages: 218-227 | First Published: 18 November 2025
Shuxian Niu, Tao Gong, Yifan Niu, Dongmei Gao, Xiaoqin Liu, Mingzhou Gao, Meijin Lin, Guangbin Wang
Pages: 228-238 | First Published: 30 March 2026
Yi-zhen Jia, Yan Zhong, Wen-hui Shen, Teng Zhang, Wen Gao, Shen-cun Fang, Mei Yuan
Pages: 239-248 | First Published: 27 February 2026
Editorial
Marrissa J. McIntosh, Alex Kiu
Pages: 249-250 | First Published: 05 March 2026
Research Article
Neuro
Jin Liu, Jiaxin Feng, Wei Li, Zhihai Su, Xiaoling Liang, Hai Lu, Le Qin, Yong Lu, Shaolin Li, Yajun Ma
Pages: 251-261 | First Published: 11 March 2026
Editorial
Surendra Maharjan, Lidia Glodzik
Pages: 262-263 | First Published: 03 April 2026
Jiucen Liang, Linqi Zhang
Pages: 264-265 | First Published: 08 March 2026
Research Article
Chest
Open Access
Ramtin Babaeipour, Matthew S. Fox, Grace Parraga, Alexei Ouriadov
Pages: 266-280 | First Published: 27 March 2026
Editorial
Michael L. Wood, Brandon Zanette, Giles Santyr
Pages: 281-282 | First Published: 30 March 2026
Research Article
Abdomen
Sungho Park, Chung Man Moon, Minseong Kwon, Suk Hee Heo, Yun Young Lee, Mun Young Paek, Sun Young Park, Jae Hyun Yoon, Sang Soo Shin, Hyungkyu Huh
Pages: 283-293 | First Published: 10 March 2026
Wenjuan Li, Ruobing Bai, Xia Gao, Chengli Gu, Heng Ma, Aoran Yang, Chunli Li, Hao Guo, Ning Mao, Kai Wang, Xiaorui Jiang, Xin Zhang, Minghui Zhou, Chen Pan, Ming Sun, Yanan Ma, Yu Shi
Pages: 294-305 | First Published: 16 March 2026
Open Access
Shan Cai, Christian Simonsson, Markus Karlsson, Wile Balkhed, Jens Tellman, Simone Ignatova, Patrik Nasr, Mattias Ekstedt, Stergios Kechagias, Wolf C. Bartholomä, Nils Dahlström, Peter Lundberg
Pages: 306-319 | First Published: 02 April 2026
Editorial
Gwenaël Pagé
Pages: 320-321 | First Published: 21 April 2026
