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Neurodynamic imaging in the assessment of sensory and cognitive functions in health and disease

Four decades ago the use of ultra-sensitive Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID) has allowed extracranial measurements of extremely weak (on the order of 100 fT) magnetic fields of neuronal origin and a direct, real-time measuring of spontaneous and evoked responses of the human brain. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) today represents one of the major functional brain imaging techniques capable to provide unique insight into the sensory and cognitive processing. Our earlier visual studies identified multiple visual areas in the human brain, demonstrated retinotopical organization not only of the striate visual cortex but extrastriate cortex as well. Millisecond temporal resolution of MEG allowed us to provide first empirical evidence of the earliest selective visual attention effect in the striate cortex as a consequence of a feedback mechanism. Spatio-temporal source localization and statistical analysis allowed us to identify earliest face-selective processing in the occipital cortex occurring already at 100 ms post stimulus (Susac et al., HBM 2008, in print). The experimental paradigms and modeling approaches developed for examining sensory and cognitive processing of a normal human brain are used currently in the NIH funded longitudinal study Functional Neuroimaging of Normal Aging and Alzheimer's Disease in which our group is focussing on the analysis of a simple auditory oddball task responses from normal aging subjects and AD patients to test medial temporal lobe functions.

neurodynamic functional imaging; sensory system; cognition

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