HRMAS is usually applied to solutions and gels where dipole-dipole interactions are insufficiently averaged by the intermediate molecular motion. HRMAS can dramatically average out residual dipolar interactions and result in spectra with linewidths similar to solution-state NMR. HRMAS links the gap between solution-state and solid-state NMR, and enable the use of solution-state experiments
HRMAS and its medical research application was first described in a 1997 study of human brain tissues from a neurodegenerative disorder.