Cog Neuro Hub Seminar by Prof Matthew Brookes

Matt Brookes is a Professor of Physics at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre, University of Nottingham, UK. His work centres on development and application of multi-modal brain imaging, particularly MEG where over the last 20 years his group has made significant contributions to inverse modelling, connectivity measurement, clinical applications and development of MEG hardware using OPMs. Brookes was the recipient of a Blavatnik Laureate award in physical sciences and engineering in 2022, and an OBE for services to physics in 2024.

Talk overview:

"Quantum sensing the brain: next generation neuroimaging using optically pumped magnetometers"

The field of magnetoencephalography (MEG) has been revolutionised in recent years by the introduction of optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). These “Lego-brick-sized” sensors can measure magnetic fields generated by the human brain, without the need for cryogenic cooling (as is the case for conventional SQUID-based MEG instrumentation). This offers significant advantages both in terms of system performance (sensitivity and spatial resolution) and practicality (to scan infants or undertake novel experimental paradigms).

In this talk, I will describe our experiences of OPMs in Nottingham, throughout a decade of research developing and deploying OPM-MEG. I will show how systems have expanded from a single-channel instrument, to our most recent 384-channel measurements; I will demonstrate how high fidelity magnetic field control has enabled free movement during scanning, and how this has led to new types of naturalistic experiment; I will explain how OPMs enable better sensitivity and show data on how high density arrays outperform SQUIDs. Finally, I will show our most recent data, where our OPM-MEG device has been used to explore neurodevelopment in children as young as two years old.