Towards OPM-MEG in a virtual reality environment

Publication date: 1 October 2019Source: NeuroImage, Volume 199Author(s): Gillian Roberts, Niall Holmes, Nicholas Alexander, Elena Boto, James Leggett, Ryan M. Hill, Vishal Shah, Molly Rea, Richard Vaughan, Eleanor A. Maguire, Klaus Kessler, Shaun Beebe, Mark Fromhold, Gareth R. Barnes, Richard Bowtell, Matthew J. BrookesAbstractVirtual reality (VR) provides an immersive environment in which a participant can experience a feeling of presence in a virtual world. Such environments generate strong emotional and physical responses and have been used for wide-ranging applications. The ability to collect functional neuroimaging data whilst a participant is immersed in VR would represent a step change for experimental paradigms; unfortunately, traditional brain imaging requires participants to remain still, limiting the scope of naturalistic interaction within VR. Recently however, a new type of magnetoencephalography (MEG) device has been developed, that employs scalp-mounted optically-pumped magnetometers (OPMs) to measure brain electrophysiology. Lightweight OPMs, coupled with precise control of the background magnetic field, enables participant movement during data acquisition. Here, we exploit this technology to acquire MEG data whilst a participant uses a virtual reality head-mounted display (VRHMD). We show that, despite increased magnetic interference from the VRHMD, we were able to measure modulation of alpha-band oscillations, and the visual evoked field. Moreover, in a VR ...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research