The invention disclosed herein provides methods for implementing Sampling Interval Modulation Magnetic Resonance Elastography (“SLIM-MRE”), based on simultaneous encoding and acquisition of individual displacement components using motion encoding gradients with different time discretization intervals to MRI analysis. The components are modulated with different frequencies in the MR signal phase, which can be expressed as a harmonic function of the start time, or equivalently of initial phase, of the motion encoding gradient components. As a result, all displacement components can be acquired faster than in conventional MRE, and can be derived from the same temporally-resolved MR phase images. This also allows for simultaneously acquired 3D displacement data and storage of such data in the same k-space.
