Summary: Researchers have used a portable MEG scanner to map brain activity in young children, providing new insights into brain development and conditions such as autism. Lightweight, adaptable 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:
- A wearable 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 developmental milestones and autism.
Source: University of Nottingham
New research has provided the clearest picture yet of young children’s developing brains using a portable brain scanner to map electrical brain activity. The work opens up new possibilities for tracking how critical developmental milestones such as walking and talking are supported by changing brain function and how neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism emerge.
The research team, led by scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, used a new magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner design to measure the electrophysiology of the brain in children as young as two years old.
The findings were published in eLife.
Brain cells work and communicate by producing electrical currents. These currents create small magnetic fields that can be detected outside the head.
The researchers used their new system to measure these fields, and mathematical modeling turned these fields into high-fidelity images showing, millisecond by millisecond, which parts of the brain are engaged 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) – that are built into a lightweight helmet to measure the 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, which increases the quality of the data. The system also allows people to move around while wearing it, making it ideal for scanning children who find it difficult to keep still in conventional scanners.
27 children (aged 2-13) and 26 adults (aged 21-34) took part in a study that 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 neural oscillations promote communication between these areas.
The research team measured how this connectivity changes as we grow up, and how our brain uses short, punctate bursts of electrophysiological activity to inhibit networks of brain regions and subsequently control how we attend to incoming sensory input.
The work was jointly led by Dr. Lukas Rier and Dr. Natalie Rhodes from the University of Nottingham’s Faculty of Physics and Astronomy.
Dr Rier said: “The carrier system has opened up new possibilities for studying and understanding children’s brains at a much younger age than previously possible with MEG.
“There are important reasons for moving to younger participants: from a neuroscientific perspective, many critical developmental milestones occur in the first few years (even months) of life. If we can use our technology to measure the brain activities that underlie these developmental milestones, it would offer a new understanding of brain function.’
The research, which was funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC), involved academic collaborators from SickKids Hospital in Toronto, Canada, and industry partners from the US nuclear device company QuSpin and Nottingham-based Cerca Magnetics Limited.
Dr Rhodes was an undergraduate physics student at the University of Nottingham and a postgraduate student at the time the work was carried out.
Now moving to a postdoctoral position in Toronto, she 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 that we can begin to investigate 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 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 demonstrate that we can track brain development from a very young age. This is hugely exciting for possible translation into clinical research, and work like this helps us understand how autism develops.”
The university launched a spin-out company, Cerca Magnetics, in 2020 to commercialize OPM-MEG scanners and related technologies. The wearable system has been installed in a number of major research institutions around the world, including SickKids Hospital in Toronto.
Research teams at both institutions are now collaborating to expand the wealth of neurodevelopmental data on both healthy and atypical brain functions.
About this news in the field of neurotech 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: Open access.
“Neurodevelopmental trajectory of beta-band oscillations: an OPM-MEG study” by Lukas Rier et al. eLife
Abstract
Neurodevelopmental trajectory of beta-band oscillations: an OPM-MEG study
Neural oscillations mediate the coordination of activity within and between brain networks, supporting cognitive functions and behavior.
How these processes develop during childhood is not only an important neuroscience 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 instrument confounds.
In this paper, we investigate the suitability of a new disruptive imaging platform—magnetometer-based optically pumped magnetoencephalography (OPM-MEG)—to study oscillations during brain development.
We show how a unique 192-channel OPM-MEG device that is adjustable to the size of the head and robust to participant motion can be used to collect high-fidelity electrophysiological data in subjects from 2 to 34 years of age.
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 age.
Furthermore, we show that panspectral bursts of electrophysiological activity drive task-induced beta modulation and that their probability of occurrence and spectral content change with age.
Our results offer new insight into the developmental trajectory of beta oscillations and provide clear evidence that OPM-MEG is an ideal platform for studying electrophysiology in neurodevelopment.