The aim of MEG research, directed by Avniel Ghuman, PhD, is to facilitate, develop, and advance clinical and basic neuroscience research using magnetoencephalography (MEG). To this end, Dr. Ghuman is helping to develop new research applications for MEG in collaboration with researchers throughout the community.
MEG is the most powerful functional neuroimaging technique for noninvasively recording magnetic fields generated by electrophysiological brain activity, providing millisecond temporal resolution and adequate spatial resolution of neural events.
MEG is currently being used to study the healthy brain—both in adults and during development—in order to understand the neural basis of cognitive processes, including reading, vision, audition, motor control, semantic memory, executive functioning, emotional processing, and working memory. Furthermore, groups in the community are also using MEG to understand how neural processing is disturbed in a host of pathologies, including TBI, schizophrenia, spinal cord injury, HIV-AIDS, epilepsy, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. MEG currently supports both presurgical clinical services and several major (R01 or equivalent) NIH grants.