Development of Hardware and Software for Clinical MEG

描述（由申请人提供）：自HFH脑磁图实验室成立以来，我们的研究目标一直是开发硬件、软件和技术，以扩大脑磁图（MEG）作为临床诊断工具和基础神经科学研究模式的实用性。随着MEG系统在美国和世界范围内的普及，以及CPT代码可用于某些临床MEG研究，开发新的和更有效的临床应用程序以使用户能够更充分地利用这些昂贵的系统已成为我们的最高优先级。因此，我们正在开发新的分析工具，并证明MEG数据包含的临床有用信息比仅使用通常的偶极技术发现的信息多得多。例如，将我们的多分辨率FOTORS与主成分分析（PCA）或奇异值分解（SVD）相结合，显示出增强的计算效率和识别指示癫痫组织的高脑相干性区域的能力的前景。在拟议的拨款期间，这些新技术将进一步发展并应用于神经和学习障碍。在具体目标一，互操作源确认将比较我们的映射技术的结果。DC-MEG将用于监测偏头痛患者发作间期皮质兴奋性以及这种兴奋性对抗偏头痛药物的反应。局灶继发性全身性癫痫活动的测定可用于预测手术切除的成功。在具体目标二中，我们建议继续开发新的分析工具，并在这些工具得到验证后在互联网上向MEG社区提供。特别是，我们将通过整合伊卡、频率分析和MEG与扩散张量成像（DTI）的配准，为我们的“MEG Tools”软件套件添加新功能。在第三个目标中，我们的新技术将被应用于在阅读任务中正常阅读者和学习障碍者之间大脑皮层激活的成像差异。这些技术将被用来映射听觉和视觉词汇刺激激活的各种皮层区域，并区分正常人和阅读障碍者的反应。这些新的成像技术提高了MEG的时间和空间分辨率，将为临床医生和研究人员提供新的非侵入性方法来研究病理和正常的神经功能。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The ongoing objective of our research, since the establishment of the HFH MEG Lab, has been to develop hardware, software, and techniques to expand the utility of Magnetoencephalography (MEG), both as a clinical diagnostic tool, and as a modality for basic neuroscience studies. With the proliferation of MEG sys- tems both in the U.S. and worldwide, and the availability of CPT codes for some clinical MEG studies, the development of new and more effective clinical applications to enable users to more fully exploit these costly systems has become our highest priority. Accordingly we are developing new analytical tools and demon- strating that MEG data contains much more clinically useful information than can be found using only the usual dipole techniques. For example, the integration of our Multi Resolution FOCUSS with Principal Com- ponent Analysis (PCA) or Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) shows promise of enhanced computational efficiency and the ability to identify regions of high brain coherence indicative of epileptic tissue. During the proposed grant, these new techniques will be further developed and applied to neurologic and learning dis- orders. In Specific Aim One, interoperative source confirmation will be compared to results of our mapping techniques. DC-MEG will be used to monitor interictal cortical excitability in migraine patients and how this excitability responds to anti-migraine medications. Determination of focal secondary generalized epileptic activity may be used to predict successful surgical resections. In Specific Aim Two we propose to continue the development of new analytical tools and to make them available to the MEG community on the Internet as they become validated. In particular, we will add new functionality to our "MEG Tools" software suite by incorporating ICA, Frequency Analysis, and MEG co-registration with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). In Specific Aim Three, our new techniques will be applied to imaging differences in cortical activation between normal readers and individuals with learning disorders during reading tasks. These techniques will be used to map various cortical areas activated by auditory and visual lexical stimuli, and to differentiate the re- sponses of normal and reading disabled individuals. The exquisite temporal and spatial resolution of MEG, enhanced by these new imaging techniques, will provide clinicians and researchers new noninvasive meth- ods to investigate pathological and normal neurological functioning.