Developing Multimodal Imaging to Advance Understanding of Brain Physiology

Upon activation, the brain exhibits electrical activity in the form of neural oscillations that can be detected outside of the head using Electroencephalography (EEG) or Magnetoencephalography (MEG). Despite being discovered nearly a century ago, the full function of these neural oscillations remains largely unknown. Active regions of the brain will also undergo changes in oxygenated blood flow that can be measured using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). In recent years, the relationships between these phenomena have been investigated, by comparing data taken using each method. Whilst MEG and fMRI data must be taken separately, it is possible to record EEG data in the hostile environment of an MRI scanner. Simultaneous acquisition of EEG and fMRI data allows for the electrical and haemodynamic signals to be compared directly in a time-locked manner, without concern for external factors that may alter the subject's brain activity between scans. This PhD project aims to further develop these techniques in data acquisition and analysis, in order to advance our understanding of brain physiology.