Magnetoencephalography: Fundamentals and Established and Emerging Clinical Applications in Radiology

Figure 1

The MEG scanner at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity. Left: Shown is a typical set up, where the subject is seated upright under the scanner. A button box is used to record behavioral responses and an eye-tracker supplies additional psychometrical data. Measurements in supine position are possible, and a doctor or nurse can stay within the magnetically shielded room in order to monitor the patient if needed. Middle: The brain magnetic fields are recorded with a helmet-shaped array of 102 SQUID devices featuring 3 pick-up coils each (306 channels in total). Two first-order gradiometers measure two orthogonal spatial gradients of the magnetic field in longitudinal and latitudinal directions, respectively. These channels are most sensitive to the tangential neuronal currents in the region below the device. A magnetometer coil (black rectangle) measures the magnetic field and is sensitive to deeper sources. Right: Typically, the cortex-to-detector distance is 4-5 cm. The primary output of the scanner is a trace for each channel representing the magnetic field or gradient as a function of time (for presentation, only 16 channels are shown; brain image courtesy of Elekta Neuromag OY, Helsinki).