What is magnetoencephalography and why it is relevant to neurosurgery?
1Section Neurobiology, Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a relatively novel technique that allows the study of the dynamic properties of cortical activity. The functional localization of brain sources of MEG signals depends on the models used and it always has a certain degree of uncertainty. Nevertheless, MEG can be very useful in assisting the neurosurgeon in planning and carrying out brain surgery in, or around, eloquent brain areas, and in epilepsy surgery in pharmaco-resistant patients. The following three areas of application of MEG in neurosurgery are reviewed: (i) Presurgical functional localization of somatomotor eloquent cortex; (ii) Presurgical evaluation of epileptic patients. (iii) Functional localization of speech relevant brain areas. The performance of MEG in comparison with EEG and fMRI is discussed.
