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Magnetoencephalography

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Modern Techniques in Neuroscience Research

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Abstract

As known from physics, each current is accompanied by a magnetic field. So are the ionic currents within the brain and the nerves. Using highly sensitive sensors, so-called SQUIDs (“superconducting quantum interference device”) developed during the last three decades, magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures these extremely weak fields outside the head. MEG can pick up the fields associated with the concerted action of a few thousand neurons and thus non-invasively monitor brain activity. With good approximation these fields reflect only intracellular (mostly intradendritic) currents and are insensitive to the extracellular current distribution, in contrast to the scalp potentials measured with EEG (cf. Chapter 35).

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Authors
  1. Volker Diekmann
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  2. Sergio N. Erné
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  3. Wolfgang Becker
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Musculoskeletat Research, National Institute for Working Life, Petrus Laestadius väg, 90713, Umeå, Sweden

    Uwe Windhorst  & Håkan Johansson  & 

  2. Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Department of Physiology and Biophysics Faculty of Medicine, The University of Calgary, 333 Hospital Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada

    Uwe Windhorst

  3. Zentrum Physiologie und Pathophysiologie, Universität Göttingen, Humboldtallee 23, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Uwe Windhorst

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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Diekmann, V., Erné, S.N., Becker, W. (1999). Magnetoencephalography. In: Windhorst, U., Johansson, H. (eds) Modern Techniques in Neuroscience Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_37

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_37

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