Ultra-low-field magnetic resonance imaging combined with magnetoencephalography

Author

Ilmoniemi, R.J. ; Alanko, S. ; Dabek, J. ; Lin, F.-H. ; Nieminen, J.O. ; Pollari, M. ; Vesanen, P.T. ; Zevenhoven, K.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Sci., Dept. of Biomed. Eng. & Comput. Sci. (BECS), Aalto Univ., Aalto, Finland

fYear

2011

fDate

13-20 Aug. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

Human brain activity can be monitored with magnetoencephalography (MEG) by measuring the femtotesla-level extracerebral magnetic fields with SQUID magnetometers. On the other hand, the structure of the brain can be determined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), where the applied fields may be 15 orders of magnitude higher than the smallest neuromagnetic signals, ruling out simultaneous MEG. It has been demonstrated recently that simultaneous MRI and MEG is possible: the trick is prepolarization at about 0.1 tesla and MRI at about 0.1 mT. We have designed and are building a hybrid multichannel helmet-shaped MEG-MRI device, which will be capable of simultaneous ultra-low-field MRI and MEG.

Keywords

SQUID magnetometers; biomedical MRI; biomedical equipment; magnetoencephalography; neurophysiology; SQUID magnetometers; femtotesla level extracerebral magnetic fields; human brain activity; hybrid multichannel helmet shaped MEG-MRI device; magnetoencephalography; neuromagnetic signals; prepolarization; ultralow field magnetic resonance imaging; Educational institutions; Head; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetic fields; Magnetic heads; Magnetic resonance imaging; SQUIDs;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, 2011 XXXth URSI

Conference_Location

Istanbul

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5117-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/URSIGASS.2011.6051348

Filename

6051348