ACR White Paper on Magnetoencephalography and Magnetic Source Imaging: A Report from the ACR Commission on Neuroradiology

Magnetoencephalography, the extracranial detection of tiny magnetic fields emanating from intracranial electrical activity of neurons, and its source modeling relation, magnetic source imaging, represent a powerful functional neuroimaging technique, able to detect and localize both spontaneous and evoked activity of the brain in health and disease. Recent years have seen an increased utilization of this technique for both clinical practice and research, in the United States and worldwide. This report summarizes current thinking, presents recommendations for clinical implementation, and offers an outlook for emerging new clinical indications.

EEG functional connectivity is partially predicted by underlying white matter connectivity

Over the past decade, networks have become a leading model to illustrate both the anatomical relationships (structural networks) and the coupling of dynamic physiology (functional networks) linking separate brain regions. The relationship between these two levels of description remains incompletely understood and an area of intense research interest. In particular, it is unclear how cortical currents relate to underlying brain structural architecture. In addition, although theory suggests that brain communication is highly frequency dependent, how structural connections influence overlying functional connectivity in different frequency bands has not been previously explored. Here we relate functional networks inferred from statistical associations between source imaging of EEG activity and underlying cortico-cortical structural brain connectivity determined by probabilistic white matter tractography. We evaluate spontaneous fluctuating cortical brain activity over a long time scale (minutes) and relate inferred functional networks to underlying structural connectivity for broadband signals, as well as in seven distinct frequency bands. We find that cortical networks derived from source EEG estimates partially reflect both direct and indirect underlying white matter connectivity in all frequency bands evaluated. In addition, we find that when structural support is absent, functional connectivity is significantly reduced for high frequency bands compared to low frequency bands. The association between cortical currents and underlying white matter connectivity highlights the obligatory interdependence of functional and structural networks in the human brain. The increased dependence on structural support for the coupling of higher frequency brain rhythms provides new evidence for how underlying anatomy directly shapes emergent brain dynamics at fast time scales.

Cortical thickness in a case of congenital unilateral perisylvian syndrome

In congenital perisylvian syndrome, there is polymicrogyric cortex distributed in variable extensions around the sylvian fissure. Unilateral cases usually present with congenital hemiparesis, while bilateral cases have pseudobulbar paralysis of the oropharingoglossal region. Both unilateral and bilateral cases have a high rate of epilepsy. Polymicrogyric cortex is characterized by too many small convolutions. Often there are no intervening sulci, and almost no white matter can be seen under them. On MRI they appear to have increased thickness. Bilateral and symmetric polimycrogiria can be hard to recognize on standard MRIs. Accurate and automated methods for measuring the thickness of cerebral cortex are available. They have mainly been used to study a variety of disorders with diminished cortical thickness. We studied a case of right perisylvian polymicrogyria, who presented in adult life with epilepsy and had a normal neurological exam. Fischl and Dale's automated cortical thickness analysis rendered a very clear picture of increased cortical thickness with values up to 9 mm in the affected areas (normal cortical thickness varies between 1 and 4.5 mm). The thickest areas were seen over grossly abnormal gyri on the reconstructed cerebral cortex. On MEG he presented a prominent and monotonous 9 Hz activity that was located within the limits of a thick gyrus. There was a significant difference of thickness between homologous hemispheric areas. To our surprise some areas of the left hemisphere also appeared to have increased thickness, raising the question of a bilateral asymmetric case.

Information theoretic analysis of dynamical encoding by four identified primary sensory interneurons in the cricket cercal system

1. The stimulus/response properties of four identified primary sensory interneurons in the cricket cercal sensory system were studied using electrophysiological techniques. These four cells are thought to represent a functionally discrete subunit of the cercal system: they are the only cells that encode information about stimulus direction to higher centers for low intensity stimuli. Previous studies characterized the quantity of information encoded by these cells about the direction of air currents in the horizontal plane. In the experiments reported here, we characterized the quantity and quality of information encoded in the cells' elicited responses about the dynamics of air current waveforms presented at their optimal stimulus directions. The total sample set included 22 cells. 2. This characterization was achieved by determining the cells' frequency sensitivities and encoding accuracy using the methods of stochastic systems analysis and information theory. The specific approach used for the analysis was the "stimulus reconstruction" technique in which a functional expansion was derived to transform the observed spike train responses into the optimal estimate (i.e., "reconstruction") of the actual stimulus. A novel derivation of the crucial equations is presented. The reverse approach is compared with the more traditional forward analysis, in which an expansion is derived that transforms the stimulus to a prediction of the spike train response. Important aspects of the application of these analytical approaches are considered. 3. All four interneurons were found to have identical frequency tuning, as assessed by the accuracy with which different frequency components of stimulus waveforms could be reconstructed with a linear expansion. The interneurons encoded significant information about stimulus frequencies between 5 and 80 Hz, which peak sensitivities at approximately 15 Hz. 4. All four interneurons were found to have identical stimulus/response latencies. The mean latency between a stimulus component and the corresponding elicited spike was 17 ms. All four interneurons also had identical integration times. The integration time, measured by the duration of stimulus, which could affect the probability of spiking, was approximately 50 ms. 5. The accuracy of the encoding can be expressed as a signal-to-noise ratio, where the noise is a scaled difference between the original signal and the best estimate of the signal. Peak signal-to-noise ratios of approximately 1 were obtained for the cells across all stimulus power levels, using only the linear expansion term. Analysis of the data indicated that the consideration of second-order nonlinear transformations of the stimulus would not have increased the calculated encoding accuracy. 6. The encoding accuracy also can be expressed in the information theoretic units of bits/second, which characterizes the information transmission rate of the cell. Bits/second values varied between 10 and 80 for the 22 different cells in our experimental set. The information rate values were highly correlated with the mean spike rates of the interneurons, but were not correlated with the stimulus power levels. However, normalizing the absolute information rates by the mean spike rate in each case yielded a measure of bits/spike that was remarkably invariant across all experiments. The measured bits/spike rate was approximately 1 for all experiments. This result is discussed in the context of recent theoretical studies on optimal encoding. 7. Although the dynamic sensitivities of the four interneurons were identical, their directional sensitivities are known to be orthogonal. Thus the cells are complementary to one another from a functional standpoint: whereas a particular cell will be insensitive to air currents from some directions, one or more of the other three cells will be sensitive to stimuli from those directions...