Magnetoencephalography in Pediatric Neuroimaging
Developmental Science 5:3 (2002), pp 361–370 MagnetoencephalographyBlackwell Publishers Ltd in pediatric neuroimaging Ritva Paetau Department of Child Neurology, Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University of Helsinki; Brain Research Unit, Helsinki University of Technology; BioMag Laboratory; Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland Abstract Neural currents give rise to electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalogram (MEG). MEG has selective sensitivity to tangential currents (from fissural cortex), and less distorted signals compared with EEG. A major goal of MEG is to determine the location and timing of cortical generators for event-related responses, spontaneous brain oscillations or epileptiform activity. MEG provides a spatial accuracy of a few mm under optimal conditions, combined with an excellent submillisecond temporal resolution, which together enable spatiotemporal tracking of distributed neural activities, e.g. during cognitive tasks or epileptic discharges. While the present focus of pediatric MEG is on tailored epilepsy surgery, the complete noninvasiveness of MEG also provides unlimited possibilities to study the brain functions of healthy and developmentally deviant children. Introduction 1996; Kamada, Moller, Saguer, Kassubek, Kaltenhauser, Kober, Uberall, Lauffer, Wenzel & Vieth, 1998; Kubota, Magnetoencephalography (MEG) detects weak extra- Takeshita, Sakakihara & Yangisawa, 2000), on the Landau- cranial magnetic fields, and allows determination of Kleffner syndrome and related disorders (Paetau, Kajola, their intracranial sources. Magnetic source imaging Korkman, Hämäläinen, Granström & Hari, 1991; Paetau, (MSI) means procedures which combine the MEG 1994; Lewine, Andrews, Chez, Patil, Devinsky, Smith, Kan- sources with anatomical magnetic resonance imaging ner, Davis, Funke, Jones, Chong, Provencal, Weisend, Lee & (MRI). The term MEG is used in the present paper to Orrison, 1999; Paetau, Granström, Blomstedt, Jousmäki, cover both MEG and MSI.
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