Critical Issues in EEG/MEG Research:

Source Localization

EEG and MEG dier fundamentally from

PET and fMRI
Neuronal activation is measured indirectly by PET/fMRI
but directly by EEG/MEG
Inverse problem of PET/fMRI is well-posed, or at worst,
mildly ill-posed. Images are reconstructed from a very
large number of independent samples so that stable
images can always be computed
EEG/MEG inverse problem involves estimation of brain
activation from (at best) a few hundred spatial samples.
Highly restrictive assumptions are required to compute a
stable inverse. This poses signicant problems for the
interpretation of the resulting inverse solutions.
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 Electro-encephalogramma = electrical
brain picture

Forward Problem:
Given a particular configuration of current
sources in the brain, calculate the magnetic
field outside the head
Inverse Problem:
Given a measured magnetic field outside
the head, calculate the current sources in
the brain

Can compute using

quasistatic
formulation of
Maxwells equations

Ill-posed
problem
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Forward model

EEG
Measures electric elds on
surface of head produced by
secondary (volume) currents
in the head
Consequently are highly
sensitive to conductivity of
brain skull and extracranial
tissue
Also sensitive to tissue
anisotropies as in white
matter
Forward model requires an
accurate model of volume
conductor

MEG
Measures magnetic elds
outside the head
produced by primary
currents in neurons
Not aected by tissue
properties so forward
model is much simpler

Inverse solutions aplenty:

Healthy diversity or.
Electromagnetic tower of Babel?
Dipole
Equivalent current dipole
Spatio-temporal dipole model
Minimum Norm Estimation
LAURA
LORETA
MUSIC
Brain Electrical Source Analysis
Piecewise homogenous
isotropic volume conductor
Finite element model

Beamformer
Synthetic Aperture
Magnetometry
Source Coherence Modeling
Dynamic Imaging of Coherent
Sources
Cortical Deblurring
Blind Source Separation
Independent Component
Analysis

Major classes of inverse procedures

Dipole Fitting procedures
Assume a small number of
focal sources

Imaging Methods
Assume a large number of
distributed sources
Constrain inverse solution
to surface of cerebral
cortex

How to validate inverse solutions?

Intracranial EEG (surgical
patients)
Radiologically visible
lesions (epilepsy)
Skull phantoms
fMRI

Each of these has their

problems

Which inverse method to use?

Sometimes it is best not to use any: Consider carefully whether you actually
get any gain in inferential power.
Dipole methods can yield quite precise and accurate results in the case of
highly focal activation (median nerve stimulation, epileptic spikes)
In many cognitive experiments the number of active regions in the brain
cannot be predicted and large areas of the brain may be involved in the
response; dipole models are likely to perform poorly and imaging methods
might be more suitable
The ability of EEG and MEG to resolve brain activity is ultimately limited by
the underlying physics, which tells us that we cannot uniquely determine
the current eld within the brain from external measurements
Therefore, all inverse methods will provide dierent approximations of this
unknown quantity, with the approximations reecting the underlying
assumptions implicit or explicit in each method

Further reading
Plummer et al. EEG source localization in focal
epilepsy: Where are we now?. Epilepsia (2008)
vol. 49 (2) pp. 201-218
Darvas et al. Mapping human brain function with
MEG and EEG: methods and validation.
Neuroimage (2004) vol. 23 Suppl 1 pp. S289-99

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