EEG acquisition in ultra-high static magnetic fields up to 9.4 T

The simultaneous acquisition of electroencephalographic (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has gained momentum in recent years due to the synergistic effects of the two modalities with regard to temporal and spatial resolution. Currently, only EEG-data recorded in fields of up to 7 T have been reported. We investigated the feasibility of recording EEG inside a 9.4 T static magnetic field, specifically to determine whether meaningful EEG information could be recovered from the data after removal of the cardiac-related artefact. EEG-data were recorded reliably and reproducibly at 9.4 T and the cardiac-related artefact increased in amplitude with increasing B0, as expected. Furthermore, we were able to correct for the cardiac-related artefact and identify auditory event related responses at 9.4 T in 75% of subjects using independent component analysis (ICA). Also by means of ICA we detected event related spectral perturbations (ERSP) in subjects at 9.4 T in response to opening/closing the eyes comparable with the response at 0 T. Overall our results suggest that it is possible to record meaningful EEG data at ultra-high magnetic fields. The simultaneous EEG-fMRI approach at ultra-high-fields opens up the horizon for investigating brain dynamics at a superb spatial resolution and a temporal resolution in the millisecond domain.