10003346Brain Imaging Using OPM-MEG: Newborn to ToddlerClosedFeasibility StudiesISCFMedical imaging technologies, like MRI, have revolutionised healthcare. Modern scanners can image the structure of organs with millimetre precision, allowing things like growths or tumours to be pinpointed. This information is used by healthcare practitioners for everything from diagnosis to surgical planning. However, despite the success, the current generation of scanners are optimised for adults and are difficult to deploy in babies or infants. Indeed, young subjects are often sedated prior to scanning. Most scanners are designed to take images of the internal structure of the body (i.e. what an organ looks like). However, in the brain, we are increasingly confronted by diseases in which structure looks "normal", yet the way in which brain cells function has gone wrong. This can be the case, for example, in epilepsy or autism. For this reason, there is a critical need for scanning technology that can image the function of neural assemblies. There are number of technologies which already exist to do this, but most are again optimised for adults. Some require patients to remain still inside large and noisy scanners, and children find this hard to cope with. Obviously, since we want to measure brain function, sedation is not an option. Other technologies, like EEG, are relatively child friendly (a scanner can be worn like a hat, and a child can move during a scan). But these techniques lack sensitivity and spatial precision, making the data they generate of limited value. Recent years have seen rapid advances in "quantum sensors", devices which exploit the fundamental properties of atoms to measure things like magnetic field. One such sensor, "the OPM", has proved itself extremely useful in measuring brain function. Cerca Magnetics is a new company selling a novel brain scanner based on OPMs. The Cerca scanner offers vastly improved sensitivity and spatial precision compared to the current state-of-the-art. Patients wear it like a helmet and can move freely during a scan, making it comfortable and easy to use. So far Cerca have only built a scanner for adults. However, the principle is uniquely adaptable to infants/babies. Here, we will solve the basic physics problems associated with adaptation from adults to babies, and design an ergonomic helmet allowing babies to be scanned whilst held by their parents. We will demonstrate our device by acquiring high quality data from a baby brain. This will provide the footing for the world's first baby-optimised functional brain scanner.