BIOMAGNETIC METHODOLOGIES FOR THE NONINVASIVE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN (MAGNOBRAIN)

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) non-invasively infers the distribution oi electric currents in the brain by measuring the magnetic fields they induce. Its superb spatial and temporal resolution provides a solid ba sis for the 'functional imaging' of the brain provided it is integrate d with other brain imaging techniques. MAGNOBRAIN is an applied resear ch project that developed tools to integrate MEG with MRI and EEG. The se include: (1) software for MEG oriented MRI feature extraction; (2) the Brain Data Base (BDB) which is a reference library of information on the brain used for more realistic and biologically meaningful funct ional localisations through MEG and EEG; and (3) a database of normati ve data (age and sex matched) for the interpretation of MEG. It is exp ected that these tools will evolve into a medical informatics environm ent that will aid the planning of neurosurgical operations as well as contribute to the exploration of mental function including the study o f perception and cognition.