fMRI-EEG simultaneous acquisition
grojascosta
Chile
in Hardware
Hi:
Is there any project that has tested OpenBCI inside magnetic resonator equipment (MRI) for simultaneous fMRI-EEG acquisition?
Sincerely
Gonzalo Rojas Costa
Comments
Cool, this would be interesting. You would need MR safe hardware however, and I'm not sure that the OpenBCI boards are that. I suppose you could use very long leads...
"13.2.1.1 Equipment
An MRI-compatible EEG recording system is needed. The electrodes and wires need to be non-magnetic, which is the case for Ag/AgCl or gold electrodes. It is possible to use whole-head caps or single electrodes. Using caps reduces the time needed to attach electrodes, which is an important factor if working with children. Individual electrodes allow a tight wrapping of all electrode wires with a bandage.
Loops in the wires or movement of the wires could cause heating or artefacts and should be avoided. Foam pads and vacuum pillows can be used to help secure the EEG leads, minimise motion and improve patient comfort. The wires are connected to an MRI-compatible high-input impedance amplifier, which is placed inside the scanner room either directly behind the head coil (e.g. MR-compatible EEG recording system “BrainAmp-MR” by Brain Products Co., Munich, Germany) or beside the subject (MR System Electrical Geodesics, EGI Co., Memphis, USA) in most cases. The data are transmitted via a fibre optic cable to a computer located outside the scanner room. In some cases, MR-compatible caps are used and connected via a long cable with an EEG system placed outside the scanner room (MagLink system, Neuroscan/Compumedics Co.)."
From:
Moeller F., Siniatchkin M., Gotman J. (2020) Simultaneous EEG and fMRI Recordings (EEG–fMRI). In: Ulmer S., Jansen O. (eds) fMRI. Springer, Cham.
MRI magnets can induce currents in nearby wires as the high strength magnetic field changes. So I would tell you not to use equipment like OpenBCI without carefully verifying the equipment after special modifications, such as shielding, are completed for a specified MRI scanner. If you have special access to a particular MRI machine I would talk to the tech support for that MRI machine about it. As it stands, I would predict that just walking into the MRI scanner room with an OpenBCI board unshielded will erase the board ROM and render it inoperable.