Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an invaluable functional brain imaging technique that provides direct, real-time monitoring of neuronal activity necessary for gaining insight into dynamic cortical networks. Our intentions with this book are to cover the richness and transdisciplinary nature of the MEG field, make it more accessible to newcomers and experienced researchers and to stimulate growth in the MEG area. The book presents a comprehensive overview of MEG basics and the latest developments in methodological, empirical and clinical research, directed toward master and doctoral students, as well as researchers. There are three levels of contributions: 1) tutorials on instrumentation, measurements, modeling, and experimental design; 2) topical reviews providing extensive coverage of relevant research topics; and 3) short contributions on open, challenging issues, future developments and novel applications. The topics range from neuromagnetic measurements, signal processing and source localization techniques to dynamic functional networks underlying perception and cognition in both health and disease. Topical reviews cover, among others: development on SQUID-based and novel sensors, multi-modal integration (low field MRI and MEG; EEG and fMRI), Bayesian approaches to multi-modal integration, direct neuronal imaging, novel noise reduction methods, source-space functional analysis, decoding of brain states, dynamic brain connectivity, sensory-motor integration, MEG studies on perception and cognition, thalamocortical oscillations, fetal and neonatal MEG, pediatric MEG studies, cognitive development, clinical applications of MEG in epilepsy, pre-surgical mapping, stroke, schizophrenia, stuttering, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, autism, aging and neurodegeneration, MEG applications in cognitive neuropharmacology and an overview of the major open-source analysis tools.

The first volume on clinical magnetoencephalography and magnetic source imaging, measuring the magnetic fields generated by neuronal activity in the brain.

Fifty Years of Magnetoencephalography celebrates the first half century of research in and clinical applications of magnetoencephalography (MEG). It catalogs and documents its evolution as a means of imaging the ongoing activity of the brain and the activation of particular neuronal networks within it that mediate sensory motor and higher functions like language. The volume's first section looks at the discovery of MEG and its first tentative applications by three of its founders. The following sections detail the rapid progress in the development of the instrumentation necessary for recording noninvasively the magnetic signals on the head that are associated with the brain activity; improvements in the techniques for analyzing the magnetic signals and reconstructing, on their basis, the functional images of brain activity; and improvements in our understanding of the nature and significance of those signals. Subsequent sections of the book detail the main clinical applications of MEG in localizing brain areas that contain sources of epileptiform activity and areas encompassing parts of functional networks essential for motor and sensory function as well as for language that have become an essential part of planning for brain surgery in many epilepsy and tumor surgery centers around the world. In addition, several chapters describe the most current efforts aiming at expanding the utility of MEG in clinical diagnosis and theoretical research.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and didactic introduction from the basics to the current state of the art in the field of EEG/MEG source reconstruction. Reconstructing the generators or sources of electroencephalographic and magnetoencephalographic (EEG/MEG) signals is an important problem in basic neuroscience as well as clinical research and practice. Over the past few decades, an entire theory, together with a whole collection of algorithms and techniques, has developed. In this textbook, the authors provide a unified perspective on a broad range of EEG/MEG source reconstruction methods, with particular emphasis on their respective assumptions about sources, data, head tissues, and sensor properties. An introductory chapter highlights the concept of brain imaging and the particular importance of the neuroelectromagnetic inverse problem. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of neural information processing and brain signal generation and an introduction to the practice of data acquisition. Next, the relevant mathematical models for the sources of EEG and MEG are discussed in detail, followed by the neuroelectromagnetic forward problem, that is, the prediction of EEG or MEG signals from those source models, using biophysical descriptions of the head tissues and the sensors. The main part of this textbook is dedicated to the source reconstruction methods. The authors present a theoretical framework of the neuroelectromagnetic inverse problem, centered on Bayes’ theorem, which then serves as the basis for a detailed description of a large variety of techniques, including dipole fit methods, distributed source reconstruction, spatial filters, and dynamic source reconstruction methods. The final two chapters address the important topic of assessment, including verification and validation of source reconstruction methods, and their actual application to real-world scientific and clinical questions. This book is intended as basic reading for anybody who is engaged with EEG/MEG source reconstruction, be it as a method developer or as a user, including advanced undergraduate students, PhD students, and postdocs in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and related fields.

An evaluation of the diagnostic utility of MEG and its clinical role in relation to EEG. Sato (Chief of EEG Laboratory and Neurophysiology Unit, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Bethesda, Maryland) and other investigators who are at the forefront of MEG research report their own firsthand experiences with this new technology and explore its possible future applications. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography are the two most efficient techniques to study the functional brain. This book completely aswers the fundamental mathematical question of uniqueness of the representations obtained using these techniques, and also covers many other concrete results for special geometric models of the brain, presenting the research of the authors and their groups in the last two decades.