Recent advances in biomagnetics and bioimaging for brain research and sensing technologies

Biomagnetics is an interdisciplinary field where magnetics, biology and medicine overlap. Recent advances in biomagnetics have enabled us not only to detect extremely weak magnetic fields from the human brain but also to control cell orientation and cell growth by using extremely high magnetic fields. Pulsed magnetic fields are also routinely used nowadays for for the magnetic stimulation of the human brain, and both high frequency magnetic fields and magnetic nano-particles have promising therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Here we will also show how highly sensitive superconducting magnetometers have shown great potential for high resolution magneto-encephalography. On the imaging front, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is now a powerful tool for basic and clinical medicine. New methods of MRI based on the imaging of impedance of the human body, called impedance MRI, and the imaging of neuronal current activities in the human brain, called current MRI, are also being developed.