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Optimal design of on-scalp electromagnetic sensor arrays for brain source localisation

Beltrachini, Leandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4602-1416, von Ellenrieder, Nicolas, Eichardt, Roland and Haueisen, Jens 2021. Optimal design of on-scalp electromagnetic sensor arrays for brain source localisation. Human Brain Mapping 42 (15) , pp. 4869-4879. 10.1002/hbm.25586

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Abstract

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) are quickly widening the scopes of noninvasive neurophysiological imaging. The possibility of placing these magnetic field sensors on the scalp allows not only to acquire signals from people in movement, but also to reduce the distance between the sensors and the brain, with a consequent gain in the signal-to-noise ratio. These advantages make the technique particularly attractive to characterise sources of brain activity in demanding populations, such as children and patients with epilepsy. However, the technology is currently in an early stage, presenting new design challenges around the optimal sensor arrangement and their complementarity with other techniques as electroencephalography (EEG). In this article, we present an optimal array design strategy focussed on minimising the brain source localisation error. The methodology is based on the Cramér-Rao bound, which provides lower error bounds on the estimation of source parameters regardless of the algorithm used. We utilise this framework to compare whole head OPM arrays with commercially available electro/magnetoencephalography (E/MEG) systems for localising brain signal generators. In addition, we study the complementarity between EEG and OPM-based MEG, and design optimal whole head systems based on OPMs only and a combination of OPMs and EEG electrodes for characterising deep and superficial sources alike. Finally, we show the usefulness of the approach to find the nearly optimal sensor positions minimising the estimation error bound in a given cortical region when a limited number of OPMs are available. This is of special interest for maximising the performance of small scale systems to ad hoc neurophysiological experiments, a common situation arising in most OPM labs.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Physics and Astronomy
Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Additional Information: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher: Wiley Open Access
ISSN: 1097-0193
Funders: EPSRC
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 7 July 2021
Date of Acceptance: 25 June 2021
Last Modified: 18 May 2023 00:29
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/142411

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