Magnetoencephalography
This chapter introduces magnetoencephalography (MEG), a tool to study brain dynamics in basic and clinical neuroscience. MEG picks up brain signals with millisecond resolution, as does electroencephalography, but without distortion by skull and scalp. The chapter describes current instrumentation based on superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). It delineates basic characteristics of measured signals: (1) brain rhythms and their reactivity during sensory processing and various tasks and (2) evoked responses elicited by sensory stimuli, and the dependence of these responses on various stimulus characteristics. Signals are described from healthy and diseased brains. The chapter presents studies of the brain basis of cognition and social interaction studied in dual-MEG setups and describes how MEG applications can be broadened by innovative setups, including frequency tagging. Progress in the field is predicted regarding sensor technology, data analysis, and multimodal brain imaging, all of which could strengthen MEG’s role in the study of brain dynamics.