Samuel J. Williamson

THE HIPPOCAMPAL FORMATION AS A SOURCE OF THE SLOW ENDOGENOUS POTENTIALS

Magnetic fields were detected with a SQUID sensor at the temporal and occipital areas of the head in response to a frequent and an infrequent attended visual stimulus. The time-course of the magnetic field for the infrequent stimulus correlated highly with the simultaneously measured electrical potential that showed the commonly observed N2-P3 complex. Analysis of the pattern of the magnetic field showed that the sources of N2 and P3 lay deep in the brain within the hippocampal formation.

Advances in biomagnetism

In the present article the architecture of a computer~ontrolled system for the acquisition and processing of signals and the simultaneous display of results is described for use in multichannel magneto--encephalography (MEG) experiments. It is shown that by selecting this architecture, that includes both state-of-the-art hardware concepts and interactive real-time software, a system has been developed that offers the combination of high performance and easy modifiability to the experiment. The paper especially emphasizes the importance of modularity and flexibility in hardware and in software design, since both determine the (im)possibilities of future MEG experiments. The present architecture offers a contribution to defining the necessary standards for data acquisition and processing in magnetoencephalography. Finally we report on some preliminary performance results obtained from a system built and implemented according to this architecture.

Magnetic source images determined by a lead-field analysis: the unique minimum-norm least-squares estimation

The minimum norm least-squares approach based on lead field theory provides a unique inverse solution for a magnetic source image that is the best estimate in the least-squares sense. This has been applied to determine the source current distribution when the primary current is confined to a surface or set of surfaces. In model simulations of cortical activity of the human brain, the magnetic field pattern across the scalp is interpreted with prior knowledge of anatomy to yield a unique magnetic source image across a portion of cerebral cortex, without resort to an explicit source model.<<ETX>>

Somatically evoked magnetic fields of the human brain.

The human brain is found to produce a magnetic field near the scalp which varies in synchrony with periodic electrical stimulation applied to a finger. Use of a highly sensitive superconducting quantum interference device as a magnetic field detector reveals that the brains field is sharply localized over the primary projection area of the sensory cortex contralateral to the digit being stimulated. The phase of the response at the stimulus frequency varies monotonically with the repetition rate and at intermediate frequencies yields a latency of approximately 70 milli-seconds for cortical response.

Somatotopic organization of the human somatosensory cortex revealed by neuromagnetic measurements

SummaryThe primary projection areas in the human somatosensory cortex activated by electrical stimulation of the digits of the hand and the ankle were localized by measuring the magnetic field outside the head contralateral to the side of stimulation. Most of the spatial variation in the amplitude of the field component normal to the scalp could be accounted for by representing each source as a single current dipole in a spherical conducting medium with solely concentric variations in electrical conductivity, although the fit of this model to the data showed some statistically significant deviations. Based on the best-fitting parameter values of the model, we found that the projection areas of the thumb, the index finger, the little finger and the ankle were located at successively more medial positions along the primary somatosensory cortex, at an average depth of 2.2 cm from the scalp surface.

Visually evoked magnetic fields of the human brain

Magnetic field variations from the human brain produced by visual stimulation have been observed in a normal laboratory setting with a superconducting quantum interference device and no magnetic shielding of the subject. Previously unknown temporal and spatial features of the field near the scalp are reported.

Human auditory primary and association cortex have differing lifetimes for activation traces

The magnetic field pattern over the temporal area of the scalp 100 ms following the onset of a tone burst stimulus provides evidence for neuronal activity in auditory primary and association cortices that overlap in time. Habituation studies indicate that onset and offset features of a tone produce activation traces in primary cortex that are at least partially common, but only the onset produces an appreciable trace in association cortex. The characteristic time constant for the decay of the latters activation trace is several seconds longer than for the former.

Characterization of the human auditory cortex by the neuromagnetic method

SummaryNeuromagnetic studies show that the location of cortical activity evoked by modulated tones and by click stimuli in the steady state paradigm can be determined non-invasively with a precision of a few millimeters. The progression of locations for tones of increasing frequency establish an orderly tonotopic map in which the distance along the cortex varies as the logarithm of the frequency. The active region responding to clicks lies at a position that is consistent with this map if the stimulus is characterized by the frequency of the peak of its power spectrum. A latency of about 50 ms observed for the response to clicks is in close correspondance with a strong component of the transient response to an isolated click reported in the literature. Monaural stimulation of the ear contralateral to the hemisphere being monitored produces a latency which is about 8 ms shorter than stimulation of the ipsilateral ear, in agreement with previous studies of transient responses. The amplitudes of the responses for binaurally presented clicks for sleeping subjects is substantially diminished for repetition rates above 20 Hz but is enhanced for lower rates.

Electrical impedance tomography: induced-current imaging achieved with a multiple coil system

An experimental study of induced-current electrical impedance tomography verifies that image quality is enhanced by employing six rather than three induction coils by increasing the number of independent measurements. However, with an increasing number of coils, the inverse problem becomes more sensitive to measurement noise. Using 16 electrodes to measure surface voltages, it is possible to collect 6/spl times/15=90 independent measurements. For comparison purposes, images of two-dimensional conductivity perturbations are reconstructed by using the data for three and six coils with the truncated pseudoinverse algorithm. By searching for the optimal truncation index that minimizes the noise error plus the resolution error, the signal-to-noise ratio of the data acquisition system was established as 58 db. Images obtained with this six-coil system reveal the sizes and locations of the conductivity perturbations. This system also provides images within the central region of the object space, a capability not achieved in previous experimental studies using only three circular coils. Nevertheless, the three-coil system can identify the conductivity perturbations near the periphery. However, it displays shifts in the locations and spread in the sizes of perturbations near the center of the object.

Changes in cortical activity when subjects scan memory for tones

The magnetoencephalogram (MEG) was used to detect regional changes in spontaneous cortical activity accompanying short-term memory search. This method was chosen because magnetic fields are detectable only within a few centimeters of the projections of their sources onto the scalp. The specific hypothesis that auditory cortex is involved in scanning memory for tones was tested by sensing the field of the magnetic counterpart to N100 (N100m) which is known to originate in auditory cortex. N100m was measured at many different positions and the spontaneous cortical rhythms in the alpha bandwidth (8-12 Hz) were measured at the same places. These rhythms were found to be suppressed while subjects scanned memory for musical tones in a Sternberg paradigm. For 3 subjects, both the MEG suppression time (ST) and reaction time (RT) increased linearly with memory set size. The correlation between ST measured over the left hemisphere and set size was significant for two subjects but not significant for the third, and the slopes of the regression lines relating ST to set size were too shallow to be related to the time required to scan memory. However, the correlation between ST of the right hemisphere and set size was highly significant for all subjects, and the slopes of the regression lines were comparable to those relating RT to set size. The electroencephalogram (EEG) recorded with midline electrodes failed to reveal a significant relationship between suppression time and set size for 2 of the subjects, thus ruling out global alpha blockage and generalized arousal as the basis for the task-related suppression duration. The electric N100, measured at Cz, decreased significantly in amplitude with set size for 2 subjects, but it increased significantly in amplitude for the third subject. In contrast, RT increased with set size for all subjects. N100m measured over the right hemisphere was similar to the behavior of N100, while N100m measured over the left hemisphere showed little change in amplitude with set size, thus establishing an asymmetry in N100 between the hemispheres. Since N100 amplitude is normally larger when attention is paid to auditory stimuli, differential attention alone cannot account for the relation between ST and set size. Furthermore, the processing negativity, which may be superimposed on N100 in selective attention tasks, was not discernible for any set size. It was also found that ST prior to the button press was not correlated with RT. Hence, the covariation of set size with ST is not attributable to preparation for a motor response.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)