Summary: 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, adaptable headset with quantum technology enables high-quality, easy-to-move scanning. This breakthrough makes it possible to study crucial stages of brain development and function from a very young age.
Highlights:
- The portable MEG scanner maps brain activity in children as young as two years old.
- Quantum technology enables high-quality, motion-friendly scanning.
- The study provides insight into the stages of development and autism.
Source: University of Nottingham
New research has given the clearest picture yet of young children’s brain development, using a portable brain scanner to map the brain’s electrical activity. This work opens up new possibilities for tracking how critical developmental milestones, such as walking and talking, are supported by changing brain functions, and how neurodevelopmental disorders like autism emerge.
The research team, led by scientists from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, used a new magnetoencephalographic (MEG) scanner design to measure brain electrophysiology in children from age of two years.
The results were published in eLife.
Brain cells function and communicate by producing electrical currents. These currents generate tiny magnetic fields that can be detected outside the head.
The researchers used their new system to measure these fields and mathematical modeling to transform these fields into high-fidelity images showing, millisecond by millisecond, which parts of the brain are engaged when we undertake tasks.
The wearable brain scanner is based on quantum technology and uses sensors the size of a LEGO brick – called optically pumped magnetometers (OPM) – which are integrated into a lightweight headset to measure fields generated by brain activity.
The unique design means 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 have difficulty remaining still with conventional scanners.
27 children (ages 2 to 13) and 26 adults (ages 21 to 34) participated in the study, which examined a fundamental component of brain function called “neural oscillations” (or brain waves). Different areas of the brain are responsible for different aspects of behavior, and neuronal oscillations promote communication between these regions.
The research team measured how this connectivity changes as we grow and how our brains use short, punctuated pulses of electrophysiological activity to inhibit networks of brain regions and, therefore, to control how we respond to requests. incoming sensory stimuli.
The work was jointly led by Dr Lukas Rier and Dr Natalie Rhodes from the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Nottingham.
Dr Rier said: “The portable system has opened up new opportunities to study and understand children’s brains at a much younger age than was previously possible with MEG.
“There are important reasons to target younger participants: From a neuroscientific perspective, many critical developmental milestones occur in the first years (or even months) of life. If we can use our technology to measure the brain activities that underlie these developmental stages, it would offer new understanding of brain function.
The research, funded by the Engineering and Physics Research Council (EPSRC), included academic collaborators from SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Canada, as well as industry partners from US atomic device company QuSpin and Cerca. Magnetics Limited, based in Nottingham.
Dr Rhodes was an undergraduate physics student at the University of Nottingham and a postgraduate student at the time the work was carried out.
She has now taken up a postdoctoral position in Toronto and explains: “This study is the first of its kind to use wearable MEG technology and provides a platform to launch new clinical research into childhood disorders. This means we can begin to explore not only healthy brain development, but also the neural substrates that underlie atypical development in children.
World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Margot Taylor – also an author of the paper – 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 demonstrate that we can track brain development from a very young age. This is extremely exciting for possible translation to clinical research and work like this helps us understand how autism develops.
The University launched spinoff 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.
Research teams from both institutions are now working together to increase the amount of data on neurodevelopment, healthy and atypical brain functions.
About this news from research in neurotechnologies and neurodevelopment
Author: Emma Thorne
Source: University of Nottingham
Contact: Emma Thorne – University of Nottingham
Picture: Image is credited to the University of Nottingham
Original research: Free access.
“The neurodevelopmental trajectory 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 provide coordination of activity within and between brain networks, supporting cognition and behavior.
How these processes develop throughout childhood is not only an important neuroscientific question, but may also shed light on the mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders.
However, measurement of the neurodevelopmental trajectory of oscillations has been hampered by instrumentation-related confounds.
In this paper, we investigate the suitability of a revolutionary new imaging platform – optically pumped magnetometer-based magnetoencephalography (OPM-MEG) – to study oscillations during brain development.
We show how a unique 192-channel OPM-MEG device, adaptable to head size and robust to participant movements, can be used to collect high-fidelity electrophysiological data in individuals aged 2 to 34 years.
Data were collected during a somatosensory task and we measured both stimulus-induced modulation of beta oscillations in the sensory cortex and whole-brain connectivity, showing that both modulate significantly with the age.
Furthermore, we show that panspectral bursts of electrophysiological activity result in 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 neurodevelopmental electrophysiology.