A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG
Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neuroimaging technique that measures neuronal activity at a millisecond scale. A few years ago, a new generation of MEG sensors emerged: optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). The most common OPMs use alkali atoms as the sensing element. These alkali OPM sensors mus...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-04-01
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmedt.2025.1548260/full |
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| author | Maxime Bonnet Maxime Bonnet Denis Schwartz Denis Schwartz Tjerk Gutteling Tjerk Gutteling Sebastien Daligault Etienne Labyt |
| author_facet | Maxime Bonnet Maxime Bonnet Denis Schwartz Denis Schwartz Tjerk Gutteling Tjerk Gutteling Sebastien Daligault Etienne Labyt |
| author_sort | Maxime Bonnet |
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| description | Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neuroimaging technique that measures neuronal activity at a millisecond scale. A few years ago, a new generation of MEG sensors emerged: optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). The most common OPMs use alkali atoms as the sensing element. These alkali OPM sensors must be heated to approximately 150°C, in contrast to classical MEG sensors [superconducting quantum interference device MEG], which need to be cooled down to −269°C. This article focuses on a new kind of OPM that uses Helium-4 gas as the sensing element, which solves some disadvantages of alkali OPMs. 4He-OPM sensors operate at room temperature, with negligible heat dissipation (10 mW) and thus do not need thermal insulation. They also offer a large dynamic range (±200 nT) and frequency bandwidth (2,000 Hz). The main goal of this study is to characterize the performance of a whole-head MEG system based on 4He OPM sensors (4He OPM MEG). We first simulated different sensor configurations with three different numbers of channels and three different head sizes, from child to adult, in order to assess the signal-to-noise ratio and the source reconstruction accuracy. Experimental testing was also performed using a phantom to simulate brain magnetic activity. The simulation and experiments show equivalent detection capability and localization accuracy on both MEG systems. These results illustrate the benefit of 4He OPM sensors that operate at room temperature and are positioned closer to the scalp. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4b9bb66168334bd58f4e1bde87efccc6 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-3129 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
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| series | Frontiers in Medical Technology |
| spelling | doaj-art-4b9bb66168334bd58f4e1bde87efccc62025-08-20T03:07:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Medical Technology2673-31292025-04-01710.3389/fmedt.2025.15482601548260A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEGMaxime Bonnet0Maxime Bonnet1Denis Schwartz2Denis Schwartz3Tjerk Gutteling4Tjerk Gutteling5Sebastien Daligault6Etienne Labyt7Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM UMRS 1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, FranceMEG Department, CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon, FranceLyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM UMRS 1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, FranceMEG Department, CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon, FranceLyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM UMRS 1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, FranceMEG Department, CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon, FranceLyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM UMRS 1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, Lyon, FranceMAG4Health, Grenoble, FranceMagnetoencephalography (MEG) is a neuroimaging technique that measures neuronal activity at a millisecond scale. A few years ago, a new generation of MEG sensors emerged: optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs). The most common OPMs use alkali atoms as the sensing element. These alkali OPM sensors must be heated to approximately 150°C, in contrast to classical MEG sensors [superconducting quantum interference device MEG], which need to be cooled down to −269°C. This article focuses on a new kind of OPM that uses Helium-4 gas as the sensing element, which solves some disadvantages of alkali OPMs. 4He-OPM sensors operate at room temperature, with negligible heat dissipation (10 mW) and thus do not need thermal insulation. They also offer a large dynamic range (±200 nT) and frequency bandwidth (2,000 Hz). The main goal of this study is to characterize the performance of a whole-head MEG system based on 4He OPM sensors (4He OPM MEG). We first simulated different sensor configurations with three different numbers of channels and three different head sizes, from child to adult, in order to assess the signal-to-noise ratio and the source reconstruction accuracy. Experimental testing was also performed using a phantom to simulate brain magnetic activity. The simulation and experiments show equivalent detection capability and localization accuracy on both MEG systems. These results illustrate the benefit of 4He OPM sensors that operate at room temperature and are positioned closer to the scalp.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmedt.2025.1548260/fullsimulationOPMMEGSQUIDhelium OPMneuroimaging |
| spellingShingle | Maxime Bonnet Maxime Bonnet Denis Schwartz Denis Schwartz Tjerk Gutteling Tjerk Gutteling Sebastien Daligault Etienne Labyt A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG Frontiers in Medical Technology simulation OPM MEG SQUID helium OPM neuroimaging |
| title | A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG |
| title_full | A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG |
| title_fullStr | A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG |
| title_full_unstemmed | A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG |
| title_short | A fully integrated whole-head helium OPM MEG: a performance assessment compared to cryogenic MEG |
| title_sort | fully integrated whole head helium opm meg a performance assessment compared to cryogenic meg |
| topic | simulation OPM MEG SQUID helium OPM neuroimaging |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmedt.2025.1548260/full |
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