Resume: Researchers used a portable MEG scanner to map brain activity in young children, providing new insights into brain development and conditions such as autism. The lightweight, customizable helmet with quantum technology enables high-quality, motion-friendly scanning. This breakthrough makes it possible to study crucial developmental milestones and brain functions from a very young age.
Key Facts:
- Portable MEG scanner maps brain activity in children aged two years and older.
- Quantum technology enables high-quality, motion-friendly scanning.
- Study provides insight into developmental milestones and autism.
Source: University of Nottingham
New research has provided the clearest picture yet of the developing brains of young children, using a wearable brain scanner to map electrical brain activity. The work opens new opportunities to track how crucial developmental milestones, such as walking and talking, are supported by changing brain functions, and how neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism emerge.
The research team, led by scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, used a new design of a magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner to measure brain electrophysiology in children aged two years and older.
The findings were published in eLife.
Brain cells work and communicate by producing electrical currents. These currents generate small magnetic fields that can be detected outside the head.
Researchers used their new system to measure these fields, and mathematical models to convert those fields into high-fidelity images that show, millisecond by millisecond, which parts of the brain are involved when we perform tasks.
The wearable brain scanner is based on quantum technology and uses sensors the size of LEGO bricks – called optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) – built into a lightweight helmet to measure the fields generated by brain activity.
Thanks to its unique design, the system can be adapted to any age group, from toddlers to adults. Sensors can be placed much closer to the head, improving data quality. The system also allows people to move while wearing it, making it ideal for scanning children who find it difficult to remain still in conventional scanners.
27 children (2-13 years) and 26 adults (21-34 years) took part in the study, which examined a fundamental part of brain function called ‘neural oscillations’ (or brain waves). Different parts of the brain are responsible for different aspects of behavior and neural oscillations promote communication between these regions.
The research team measured how this connectivity changes as we age, and how our brains use short, spiked bursts of electrophysiological activity to inhibit networks of brain regions, and consequently control how we interact with incoming sensory stimuli.
The work was jointly led by Dr Lukas Rier and Dr Natalie Rhodes from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
Dr. Rier said: “The wearable system has opened up new opportunities to study and understand children’s brains at much younger ages than previously possible with MEG.
“There are important reasons for switching to younger participants: From a neuroscience perspective, many crucial developmental milestones occur in the first few years (even months) of life. If we can use our technology to measure the brain activities underlying these developmental milestones, it would provide a new understanding of brain function.”
The research, which was funded by the Engineering and Physics Research Council (EPSRC), involved academic collaborators from SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and industrial partners from US nuclear device company QuSpin and Nottingham-based company Cerca Magnetics Limited.
Dr. Rhodes was a physics student at the University of Nottingham and a postgraduate student when the work was carried out.
She has now moved to a postdoctoral position in Toronto and explains: “This study is the first of its kind using wearable MEG technology and provides a platform to launch new clinical research into pediatric diseases. This means that we can investigate not only healthy brain development, but also the neural substrates that underlie atypical development in children.”
World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Margot Taylor – also author of the article – leads autism research in Toronto.
She said: “Our work is dedicated to studying brain function in young children with and without autism. This study is the first to show that we can monitor brain development from a very young age. This is hugely exciting for potential translation to clinical research and work like this helps us understand how autism develops.”
The university launched a spinout company Cerca Magnetics in 2020 to commercialize OPM-MEG scanners and related technologies. The portable system has been installed at a number of leading research institutions around the world, including SickKids Hospital in Toronto.
The research teams at both institutions are now working together to expand the amount of neurodevelopmental data on both healthy and atypical brain functions.
About this neurotech and neurodevelopment research news
Author: Emma Thorne
Source: University of Nottingham
Contact: Emma Thorne – University of Nottingham
Image: The image is attributed to the University of Nottingham
Original research: Open access.
“The neurological pathway of beta band oscillations: an OPM-MEG study” by Lukas Rier et al. eLife
Abstract
The neurodevelopmental trajectory of beta-band oscillations: an OPM-MEG study
Neural oscillations mediate the coordination of activity within and between brain networks and support cognition and behavior.
How these processes develop during childhood is not only an important neuroscientific question, but could also shed light on the mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders.
However, measuring the neurodevelopmental trajectory of oscillations is hampered by instrumentation confusion.
In this article, we investigate the suitability of a disruptive new imaging platform – optically pumped magnetometer-based magnetoencephalography (OPM-MEG) – to study oscillations during brain development.
We demonstrate how a unique 192-channel OPM-MEG device, which is adaptable to head size and robust to participant movement, can be used to collect high-fidelity electrophysiological data in individuals between 2 and 34 years old.
Data were collected during a somatosensory task and we measured both the stimulus-induced modulation of beta oscillations in the sensory cortex and whole-brain connectivity, showing that both modulate significantly with age.
Furthermore, we show that pan-spectral bursts of electrophysiological activity drive task-induced beta modulation, and that their probability of occurrence and spectral content change with age.
Our results provide new insights into the developmental trajectory of beta oscillations and provide clear evidence that OPM-MEG is an ideal platform for studying electrophysiology in neurodevelopment.