Jussi Nurminen

Somatosensory evoked potentials and magnetic fields elicited by tactile stimulation of the hand during active and quiet sleep in newborns.

OBJECTIVE Our objective was to characterize the effects of sleep stages on tactile somatosensory evoked responses in full-term newborns. METHODS Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and magnetic fields (SEFs) to tactile stimulation of the tip of the index finger and/or thenar eminence were measured from 14 healthy newborns. The stimulus was a gentle tap produced by a moving membrane driven by an air-pressure pulse. RESULTS SEPs and SEFs to tactile stimulation of the skin were similar in waveform and latency to SEPs known to be produced by electrical stimulation of the fingertip of neonates. The two most distinguishable positive deflections of SEPs, P1 and P2, within 300 ms of the stimulation, and their magnetic counterparts were clearly smaller in active compared to quiet sleep. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates for the first time that it is possible to record SEFs in neonates, and that clear late cortical somatosensory responses are produced by tactile stimulation. In addition, the effect of sleep stage on these responses indicates differences in the processing of the incoming information, at least in the somatosensory modality, in active and quiet sleep. SIGNIFICANCE Tactile stimulation may be useful as a completely non-invasive technique for studying the physiology of the somatosensory system in neonates. Methodologically, since the effect of sleep stage is profound, one must carefully monitor the sleep stages in studies of event-related responses in newborns, or else this effect may confound the phenomena being studied.

Effects of DBS on auditory and somatosensory processing in Parkinson's disease.

Motor symptoms of Parkinsons disease (PD) can be relieved by deep brain stimulation (DBS). The mechanism of action of DBS is largely unclear. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) studies on DBS patients have been unfeasible because of strong magnetic artifacts. An artifact suppression method known as spatiotemporal signal space separation (tSSS) has mainly overcome these difficulties. We wanted to clarify whether tSSS enables noninvasive measurement of the modulation of cortical activity caused by DBS. We have studied auditory and somatosensory‐evoked fields (AEFs and SEFs) of advanced PD patients with bilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) DBS using MEG. AEFs were elicited by 1‐kHz tones and SEFs by electrical pulses to the median nerve with DBS on and off. Data could be successfully acquired and analyzed from 12 out of 16 measured patients. The motor symptoms were significantly relieved by DBS, which clearly enhanced the ipsilateral auditory N100m responses in the right hemisphere. Contralateral N100m responses and somatosensory P60m responses also had a tendency to increase when bilateral DBS was on. MEG with tSSS offers a novel and powerful tool to investigate DBS modulation of the evoked cortical activity in PD with high temporal and spatial resolution. The results suggest that STN‐DBS modulates auditory processing in advanced PD. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011.

BabySQUID: A mobile, high-resolution multichannel magnetoencephalography system for neonatal brain assessment

We developed a prototype of a mobile, high-resolution, multichannel magnetoencephalography (MEG) system, called babySQUID, for assessing brain functions in newborns and infants. Unlike electroencephalography, MEG signals are not distorted by the scalp or the fontanels and sutures in the skull. Thus, brain activity can be measured and localized with MEG as if the sensors were above an exposed brain. The babySQUID is housed in a moveable cart small enough to be transported from one room to another. To assess brain functions, one places the baby on the bed of the cart and the head on its headrest with MEG sensors just below. The sensor array consists of 76 first-order axial gradiometers, each with a pickup coil diameter of 6mm and a baseline of 30mm, in a high-density array with a spacing of 12–14mm center-to-center. The pickup coils are 6±1mm below the outer surface of the headrest. The short gap provides unprecedented sensitivity since the scalp and skull are thin (as little as 3–4mm altogether) in babies....

An Internet-Based Real-Time Audiovisual Link for Dual MEG Recordings.

Hyperscanning Most neuroimaging studies of human social cognition have focused on brain activity of single subjects. More recently, “two-person neuroimaging” has been introduced, with simultaneous recordings of brain signals from two subjects involved in social interaction. These simultaneous “hyperscanning” recordings have already been carried out with a spectrum of neuroimaging modalities, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Dual MEG Setup We have recently developed a setup for simultaneous magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings of two subjects that communicate in real time over an audio link between two geographically separated MEG laboratories. Here we present an extended version of the setup, where we have added a video connection and replaced the telephone-landline-based link with an Internet connection. Our setup enabled transmission of video and audio streams between the sites with a one-way communication latency of about 130 ms. Our software that allows reproducing the setup is publicly available. Validation We demonstrate that the audiovisual Internet-based link can mediate real-time interaction between two subjects who try to mirror each others’ hand movements that they can see via the video link. All the nine pairs were able to synchronize their behavior. In addition to the video, we captured the subjects’ movements with accelerometers attached to their index fingers; we determined from these signals that the average synchronization accuracy was 215 ms. In one subject pair we demonstrate inter-subject coherence patterns of the MEG signals that peak over the sensorimotor areas contralateral to the hand used in the task.

Validation of head movement correction and spatiotemporal signal space separation in magnetoencephalography

OBJECTIVE Our aim was to assess the effectiveness and reliability of spatiotemporal signal space separation (tSSS) and movement correction (MC) in magnetoencephalography (MEG) recordings disturbed by head movements and magnetized material on the head. METHODS We recorded MEG from 20 healthy adults in stationary (reference) head position and during controlled head movements. Nearby magnetic interference sources were simulated by attaching magnetized particles on the subjects head. Auditory and somatosensory stimuli were presented. MC, tSSS and averaging were performed to obtain auditory (AEF) and somatosensory (SEF) evoked fields. Neuronal sources were modeled as equivalent current dipoles. MC was also validated by reconstructing signals generated by current dipoles in a phantom. RESULTS After MC, the AEF and SEF responses recorded during intermittent head movements were similar in amplitude to the reference recordings and differed by 5-7mm in source location. The tSSS method removed artifacts due to the attached magnetized particles but did not affect the reference data. CONCLUSIONS The methods are able to reliably recover MEG responses contaminated by movements and magnetic artifacts on the head. SIGNIFICANCE The combination of tSSS and MC methods is especially useful in clinical measurements, where movements and magnetic disturbances are commonly present.

Somatomotor mu rhythm amplitude correlates with rigidity during deep brain stimulation in Parkinsonian patients.

OBJECTIVE Parkinsonian patients have abnormal oscillatory activity within the basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuitry. Particularly, excessive beta band oscillations are thought to be associated with akinesia. We studied whether cortical spontaneous activity is modified by deep brain stimulation (DBS) in advanced Parkinsons disease and if the modifications are related to the clinical symptoms. METHODS We studied the effects of bilateral electrical stimulation of subthalamic nucleus (STN) on cortical spontaneous activity by magnetoencephalography (MEG) in 11 Parkinsonian patients. The artifacts produced by DBS were suppressed by tSSS algorithm. RESULTS During DBS, UPDRS (Unified Parkinsons Disease Rating Scale) rigidity scores correlated with 6-10 Hz and 12-20 Hz somatomotor source strengths when eyes were open. When DBS was off UPDRS action tremor scores correlated with pericentral 6-10 Hz and 21-30 Hz and occipital alpha source strengths when eyes open. Occipital alpha strength decreased during DBS when eyes closed. The peak frequency of occipital alpha rhythm correlated negatively with total UPDRS motor scores and with rigidity subscores, when eyes closed. CONCLUSION STN DBS modulates brain oscillations both in alpha and beta bands and these oscillations reflect the clinical condition during DBS. SIGNIFICANCE MEG combined with an appropriate artifact rejection method enables studies of DBS effects in Parkinsons disease and presumably also in the other emerging DBS indications.

Effects of sensor calibration, balancing and parametrization on the signal space separation method

Signal space separation (SSS) is a novel method for processing multichannel biomagnetic data. It is useful for a variety of applications including interference suppression, movement compensation and conversion of measurements between sensor arrays. The performance of SSS has been examined mainly on a 306-channel whole-head magnetoencephalography system. To facilitate the adaptation of the method to other biomagnetometer systems, the effect of various properties of the sensor array on its performance needs to be studied. To this end, we examined the effects of gradiometer imbalance, sensor calibration errors and erroneous sensor geometry information on SSS using simulations. The results indicate that depending on the application, gradiometer balance on the level of 0.1% to 0.5% may be needed for satisfactory SSS performance. For wire-wound gradiometers, this requires very careful attention in manufacturing. Errors in calibration coefficients and geometry information were found to have less significance.

Cortico-muscular coherence in advanced Parkinson's disease with deep brain stimulation

OBJECTIVE Cortico-muscular coherence (CMC) is thought to reflect the interplay between cortex and muscle in motor coordination. In Parkinsons disease (PD) patients, levodopa has been shown to enhance CMC. This study examined whether subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) affects the CMC in advanced PD. METHODS Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electromyography (EMG) measurements were done simultaneously both with DBS on and off to determine the CMC during wrist extension. The spatiotemporal signal space separation (tSSS) was used for artifact suppression. RESULTS CMC peaks between 13 and 25 Hz were found in 15 out of 19 patients. The effect of DBS on CMC was variable. Moreover, the correlation between CMC and motor performance was inconsistent; stronger CMC did not necessarily indicate better function albeit tremor and rigidity may diminish the CMC. Patients having CMC between 13 and 25 Hz had the best motor scores at the group level. CONCLUSIONS DBS modifies the CMC in advanced PD with large interindividual variability. SIGNIFICANCE DBS does not systematically modify CMC amplitude in advanced PD. The results suggest that some components of the CMC may be related to the therapeutic effects of DBS.

Early dissociation of face and object processing: A magnetoencephalographic study

The early dissociation in cortical responses to faces and objects was explored with magnetoencephalographic (MEG) recordings and source localization. To control for differences in the low‐level stimulus features, which are known to modulate early brain responses, we created a novel set of stimuli so that their combinations did not have any differences in the visual‐field location, spatial frequency, or luminance contrast. Differing responses to face and object (flower) stimuli were found at about 100 ms after stimulus onset in the occipital cortex. Our data also confirm that the brain response to a complex visual stimulus is not merely a sum of the responses to its constituent parts; the nonlinearity in the response was largest for meaningful stimuli. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009.

Improving MEG Performance With Additional Tangential Sensors

Recently, the signal space separation (SSS) method, based on the multipole expansion of the magnetic field, has become increasingly important in magnetoencephalography (MEG). Theoretical arguments and simulations suggest that increasing the asymmetry of the MEG sensor array from the traditional, rather symmetric geometry can significantly improve the performance of the method. To test this concept, we first simulated addition of tangentially oriented standard sensor elements to the existing 306-channel Elekta Neuromag sensor array, and evaluated and optimized the performance of the new sensor configuration. Based on the simulation results, we then constructed a prototype device with 18 additional tangential triple-sensor elements and a total of 360 channels. The experimental results from the prototype are largely in agreement with the simulations. In application of the spatial SSS method, the 360-channel device shows an approximately 100% increase in software shielding capability, while residual reconstruction noise of evoked responses is decreased by 20%. Further, the new device eliminates the need for regularization while applying the SSS method. In conclusion, we have demonstrated in practice the benefit of reducing the symmetry of the MEG array, without the need for a complete redesign.