Entrained Brain Oscillations and the Processing of Complex Auditory or Visual Stimuli
There is a growing number of studies demonstrating a temporal reorganization of human brain oscillations in response to complex quasi-rhythmic stimuli such as speech. The reorganization is characterized by a temporal alignment of frequency-specific brain activity to stimulus features. However, the differential contributions of bottom-up and top-down processes to this alignment have remained largely unknown. Furthermore, we are just beginning to understand what physical stimulus features and what linguistic structures are entraining brain activity. Recent studies suggest that this entrainment reflects cognitive processes of temporal coding, segmentation and prediction that are orchestrated by hierarchically organized brain oscillations. In this symposium we are presenting and discussing the latest developments in this field. Specifically, we explore the role of brain oscillations in the coding and parsing of hierarchical linguistic structures and the top-down modulation of bottom-up entrainment through visual and auditory sensory channels. Through presentations and discussions our symposium aims to contribute to a better understanding of how rhythmic brain activity assists in the processing of complex, naturalistic stimuli and, ultimately, facilitates human communication.

Speakers:

• David Poeppel (New York Univ., USA/Max Planck Inst. for Empirical Aestetics)
  "Cortical entrainment to abstract structures in language"
• Hyojin Park (Univ. of Glasgow, UK)
  "Lip movements during speech entrain observers’ low-frequency brain oscillations"
• Jonas Obleser (Univ. of Lübeck, Germany)
  "The oscillatory dynamics of auditory attention"
• Anne Koesem & Virginie van Wassenhove (CEA DSV/I2BM, INSERM, NeuroSpin center, France)
  "Oscillatory neural activity controls the encoding of continuous speech"

Toward an Understanding of the Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Human Brain Development with MEG Neuroimaging
This symposium brings together developmental MEG researchers from the US, UK, Australia, and Japan. Four of the speakers will describe their experiences using the Tristan Technologies and Yokogawa/KIT pediatric MEG systems which have recently provided new windows into brain development from infancy through the pre-school years. Two speakers will relate data from older children obtained with conventional MEG instrumentation. The talks will encompass studies of typical brain development of visual, auditory and motor processes, and studies of atypical development including fetal alcohol syndrome disorders and autism spectrum disorders. Taken together the talks of this symposium will summarize the current state of pediatric/child MEG research and illuminate future scientific and clinical directions.

Speakers:

• Banu Ahtam (Harvard Medical School, USA)
  "Human brain development research with MEG at Boston Children’s Hospital"
• J Christopher Edgar (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA)
  "The maturation of auditory responses in infants and young children: a cross-sectional study from 6 to 59 months"
• Mitsuru Kikuchi (Kanazawa Univ., Japan)
  "Atypical development of the auditory system in children with autism spectrum disorder"
• Wei He (Macquarie Univ., Australia)
  "Effective connectivity of core brain networks for perception and cognition in preschool age children"
• Klaus Kessler (Aston Univ., UK)
  "Local dysregulation, global hypoconnectivity, and deficient predictive coding in ASC"
• Julia M. Stephen (The Mind Research Network, USA)
  "Visual deficits in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder – implications for understanding normal development"

Neuromagnetic Measurements beyond Low-Tc SQUIDs: Session 1
MEG has provided significant insights into the workings of the human brain and improved our ability to treat it in disease. MEG has also been the main technology driver in the field of biomagnetism; to date, the low-Tc SQUID has remained the sensor of choice for MEG. However, the emerging new generation of magnetic sensor technologies enables finer-grained sampling of the neuromagnetic field that the head surface for on-scalp MEG and within the neural tissue for invasive magnetoneurography. By moving beyond the limitations of low-Tc SQUIDs, these new approaches hold promise for major advancements over the state of the art in neuromagnetic recordings: the substantial increase in spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio as well as access to neuron-scale magnetic signals may drastically change our field. This symposium will not only provide an up-to-date picture of several sensor technologies that may rival low-Tc SQUIDs in neuromagnetism but it will also illustrate the value of these novel technologies for MEG. In addition, the symposium covers the challenges in moving from demonstrations with single sensors to practical systems.

Speakers:

• Matti S. Hämäläinen (Boston Children’s Hospital, USA)
  "Hopes and dreams for on-scalp MEG"
• Justin F. Schneiderman (Univ. of Gothenburg and the Inst. of Neuroscience and Physiology, Sweden)
  "High-Tc SQUIDs for on-scalp MEG"
• Jürgen Dammers (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany)
  "High-Tc SQUID based MEG experiments and data analysis"
• Svenja Knappe (NIST, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, USA )
  "Small-sized OPMs for an MEG prototype array"
• Peter Schwindt (Sandia Nat'l Laboratories, USA)
  "Towards a multi-channel magnetoencephalography system using optically pumped magnetometers"

Multimodal Studies of Neural Oscillations: from Basic Systems to Pathology
Accepting the hypothesis that functional brain measures are more proximal to neurobiological mechanisms and/or pathways associated with neurologic and psychiatric disorders than overt behavioral measures, it is hoped that neuroimaging-based endophenotypes will identify biological mechanisms in these populations at the level of neural circuits. This symposium provides an overview of work in this area, with presentations first reviewing basic aspects of neural oscillatory systems, to presentations discussing how these systems can be modulated via pharmacological or cognitive treatment, to presentations reviewing studies of neural oscillations (and the ability to modulate abnormal oscillatory neural rhythms) in schizophrenia and autism. Each speaker is an expert in this area, with multiple publications over the last decade and thus with the ability to provide a broad overview of key topics in this rapidly growing area of research. A strength of the symposium is that each speaker will focus on the use of multimodal imaging to better understand normal and abnormal neural oscillatory activity. Thus, the proposed symposium showcases the increasingly sophisticated research in this area and the continued maturation of MEG psychiatry and neurology research.

Speakers:

• Karim Jerbi (Univ. of Montreal, Canada)
  "The curse of modality and why gamma oscillations might be a peacemaker: Bridging MEG, fMRI, intracranial EEG and GABA neurotransmission"
• Krish Singh (CUBRIC, Cardiff Univ., UK)
  "Oscillatory biomarkers in health and disease: Their use, pharmacological manipulation, and neurophysiologically informed modelling"
• Ole Jensen (Radboud Univ., The Netherlands)
  "Posterior alpha oscillations under top-down control are aberrant in ADHD patients"
• J. Christopher Edgar ( Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA)
  "Auditory encoding in schizophrenia and unaffected relatives: low- rather than high-frequency superior temporal gyrus auditory abnormalities are primary to schizophrenia"
• Mingxiong Huang (Univ. of California San Diego, USA)
  "Resting-state MEG Studies of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-traumatic Brain Disorder and Relationships with Diffusion Tensor Imaging and fMRI"
• Tzvetan Popov (Univ. of Konstanz, Germany)
  "Training-induced modulation of alpha oscillations and their role in pathophysiology of schizophrenia"

Neuromagnetic Measurements beyond Low-Tc SQUIDs: Session 2
MEG has provided significant insights into the workings of the human brain and improved our ability to treat it in disease. MEG has also been the main technology driver in the field of biomagnetism; to date, the low-Tc SQUID has remained the sensor of choice for MEG.However, the emerging new generationof magnetic sensor technologies enablesfiner-grained sampling of the neuromagnetic field bothat the head surface for on-scalp MEG and within the neural tissue for invasive magnetoneurography. By moving beyond the limitations of low-Tc SQUIDs,these new approacheshold promise for major advancements over the state of the art in neuromagnetic recordings:the substantial increasein spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio as well as access to neuron-scale magnetic signals may drastically change our field. This symposium will not only provide an up-to-date picture of several sensor technologies that may rival low-Tc SQUIDs in neuromagnetism but it will also illustrate the value of these novel technologies for MEG. In addition, the symposium covers the challenges in moving from demonstrations with single sensors to practical systems.

Speakers:

• Visa Vesterinen (VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Finland)
  "The Kinetic Inductance Magnetometer"
• David A. Simpson (Univ. of Melbourne, Australia)
  "Exploring magnetism in biology using defects in diamond"
• Myriam Pannetier-Lecoeur (CEA Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
  "Spintronics sensors for biomagnetism at neuron scale"
• Elena Boto (Univ. of Nottingham, UK)
  "The Potential of Optically-Pumped Magnetometers for MEG"
• Lauri Parkkonen (Aalto Univ., Finland)
  "From sensors to a MEG system"

Cutting Edge of MEG and ECoG based Brain Machine Interfaces
Brain machine interface (BMI) is a promising technology for functional restoration and neurofeedback. In this symposium, 4 leading researchers present the cutting edge of BMIs using MEG and ECoG, focusing on motor and cognitive BMIs. We will clarify common and different points between MEG and ECoG in terms of BMI. Both MEG and ECoG well estimate localized oscillatory modulation, which we can use as decoding features for BMIs. MEG is noninvasive but also has high spatiotemporal resolution. They are important and appropriate factors for neurofeedback. MEG has broader spatial coverage than ECoG. This is more appropriate to estimate transcortical connectivity, which may contribute to neural decoding of higher order brain functions. MEG is inferior in the sensitivity of high frequency oscillatory activity, which contains rich neural information. In contrast, ECoG enables accurate real time control of a robotic arm by detecting high frequency oscillation in a single trial basis. By fully utilizing and improving these properties, we may light up the future perspective of MEG and ECoG based BMIs.

Speakers:

• Ole Jensen (Radboud Univ., The Netherlands)
  "Alpha activity modulated by attention used for MEG brain-computer interfaces and neurofeedback"
• Kyousuke Kamada (Asahikawa Medical Univ., Japan)
  "ECoG-based BCI for motor functions"
• Jun Sic Kim (Seoul Nat'l Univ., Korea)
  "Prediction of movement intention based on connectivity"
• Masayuki Hirata (Osaka Univ. Medical School, Japan)
  "ECoG and MEG as neural signals for BMIs"

Network Disruption in Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders
This symposium will consist of a combination of speakers in clinical neuroscience field for various neurological and psychiatric disorders. The aims of this symposium are to cover the latest topics in multimodal neuroimaging such as EEG, MEG, functional MRI, and DTI, with emphasis on connectivity mapping, provide training on the updated researches and latest methods, and provide a forum for rich discussion on more general approaches for multimodal brain mapping techniques, interpretations of the combined results, as well as future directions. Overall, studies on network properties and functional connectivity are becoming important tools for assessing abnormal brain organization in various neurological and psychiatric disorders and will help expand our understanding of identifying networks disruption in these conditions.

Speakers:

• Louis Lemieux (Univ. of College London, UK)
  "Multimodal functional neuroimaging in clinical neuroscience"
• Maxime Guye (Aix-Marseille Univ., France)
  "What can we learn from functional connectivity in neurological diseases?"
• Hyang Woon Lee (Ewha Womans Univ., Korea)
  "Network dynamics explored by functional connectivity analysis in neurological disorders"
• Riki Matsumoto (Kyoto Univ., Japan)
  "Probing dynamics of cortico-cortial connectivity with direct cortical stimulation in physiological and pathologic states"

Revealing Signatures of Intrinsic Coupling Modes by MEG: Insights from New Methods
In the last 20 years, system neuroscience has seen a paradigm shift in ongoing brain activity, moving away from considering it as an idling state towards its organization in spatiotemporal structures linked to experience. More recently, MEG functional connectivity contributed along this line by designing methods focusing on coupling of slow fluctuations (seconds) of brain activity resembling fMRI. Indeed, MEG functional connectivity studies have also shown that faster intrinsic brain activity is organized with spatio-temporal structures that only partially overlap with that of slow fluctuations, with the notion of Intrinsic-Coupling-Modes (Engel et al., 2013) providing a unifying theoretical framework for the multiple spatial and temporal scales. From a methodological standpoint, two major aspects deserve further discussion: i) approaches able to capture and integrate different aspects of such spatio-temporal structure; ii) issues of the robustness and reliability of such approaches. The aim of this symposium is to bring together experts in analysis methods to discuss these aspects with specific reference to the role of frequency, cross-frequency coupling, and coupling of slow fluctuations. Along with presenting novel methods, pitfalls and methodological issues, the speakers will cover relevance to the ICM model. The symposium will last 60 minutes and host 3 speakers.

Speakers:

• Laura Marzetti (Univ. G. d'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Univ. G. d'Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Italy)
  "State of the art of methods for the study of intrinsic coupling modes by MEG."
• Mark Woolrich (Univ. of Oxford, United Kingdom)
  "Multi-subject MEG Connectomes"
• Guido Nolte (Universitaetsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany)
  "Bicoherence. The higher harmonics strike back."

Neurostimulation techniques including transcranial current stimulation (either direct or alternating current (tDCS/tACS)) and deep brain stimulation (DBS) allow us to directly modulate the level and timing of spontaneous neuronal activity while also producing changes outlasting stimulation. Recent methodological advancements provide the unique opportunity to directly study the effects of neuromodulation on neuronal activity and the associated changes in behaviour and disease symptoms on the neurophysiogical level using MEG. However, this is complicated by magnetic artifacts orders of magnitudes larger than the brain signal of interest.

This symposium will present both pioneering research using simultaneous tCS-MEG and DBS-MEG as well as recent advancements in artefact rejection which allow studying the effects of neurostimulation in the MEG ‘online’. This symposium aims at giving further insight how neurostimulation modulates oscillatory brain activity and how MEG can be used to further our understanding of its functional relevance.

Speakers:

• Jim Herring (Donders Inst., The Netherlands)
  "Modulating stimulus-induced gamma-band activity with tCS in the MEG"
• Surjo R. Soekadar (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany)
  "Investigating the mechanisms underlying behavioral effects of transcranial electric stimulation (tES): current state and futur eperspectives"
• David McGonigle (Cardiff Univ., UK)
  "Exploring Issues of Optimisation in tES-MEG Experiments"
• Toralf Neuling (Univ. of Salzburg & Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Austria/Germany)
  "Beamforming can recover brain activity in MEG-tACS settings"
• Nima Noury (Univ. of Tübingen, Germany)
  "Physiological processes non-linearly affect electrophysiological recordings during transcranial electric stimulation"
• Omid Abbasi (Heinrich Heine Univ. Düsseldorf, Germany)
  "Deeply stimulating the brain at 130 Hz and 340 Hz in the MEG scanner"
• Jyrki Mäkelä (HUS Medical Imaging Center, Finland)
  "The effects of DBS on MEG spontaneous oscillatory activity in patients with late-phase Parkinson’s disease"
• Vladimir Litvak (Univ. College London, UK)
  "Simultaneous MEG and intracranial LFP recordings during Deep Brain Stimulation"

Neural Dynamics of Visual Representations
The human visual brain shows highly dynamic patterns of activity, as one transient visual representation is followed rapidly by another. This symposium focuses on several recent studies offering novel insights into the human visual brain. We show that a) MEG measurements can capture the neural signature of a perceptual Gestalt, demonstrating that differences in perceived global form are accompanied by corresponding differences in neural representations; b) conscious and unconscious perceptions share neural signatures that are initially identical and then subsequently diverge, as conscious access engages additional neural activity patterns whereas unconscious access leads to a slow decay of brain activation; c) MEG signals can capture information at spatial scales much more refined than previously believed, giving access to information encoded at the level of individual cortical columns; d) the rich content of MEG visual representations allows view-invariant decoding of human action as early as 200 ms after stimulus onset; and e) the direction of MEG source currents at fusiform cortex dissociate the feedforward and feedback inputs of the hierarchically organized visual brain. Taken together, these results exemplify the power of MEG in capturing visual representations and promise even more exciting results in the future.

Speakers:

• Thomas Carlson (Macquarie Univ., Australia)
  "Decoding the time varying representation of abstract visual patterns with MEG"
• Lauri Parkkonen (Aalto Univ., Finland)
  "Decoding conscious and unconscious visual percepts"
• Dimitrios Pantazis (MIT, USA)
  "Can visual information encoded in cortical columns be decoded from magnetoencephalography data in humans?"
• Leyla Isik (Boston Children's Hospital / MIT, USA)
  "Fast, invariant representations for human action in the visual system"
• Seppo Ahlfors (Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, USA)
  "Characterizing activation patterns among hierarchically organized visual areas with MEG"

In this symposium, we focused on the current status of clinical and experimental MCG study. We invite seven speakers internationally, who will present … 2) overview of current status of clinical magnetocardiography, 3) the efficacy of vector MCG for AF risk stratification, 4) the feasibility of MCG to detect left atrial dysfunction in the patients with paroxysmal AF, … This symposium will show that MCG could have a potential benefit to clarify the pathophysiology and overcome the hurdle of many cardiac diseases.

Speakers:

• Uwe Schneider (Univ. Hospital Jena, Germany)
  "Evaluation of autonomic nervous system of the fetus using fetal MCG"
• Eun-Seok Shin (Ulsan Univ. Hospital, Korea)
  "Current status and Clinical Application of MCG"
• Tetsuo Sasano (Tokyo Medical and Dental Univ., Japan)
  "Risk stratification of atrial fibrillation utilizing vector magnetocardiography"
• Ae-Young Her (Kangwon Nat'l Univ., Korea)
  "Magnetocardiography detects left atrial dysfunction in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: Comparison with healthy subjects"
• Byeongsoo Kim (Biomagnetik Park GmbH, Germany)
  "KE-VMCG: An Alternative Representation of Magnetocardiography Signal for Patient Positioning Offset Robustness and Device Independence"
• Xiangyan Kong ( Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
  "Recent Progress of MCG System Development and Its Clinical Application in SIMIT"
• Kuniomi Ogata (Hitachi Ltd., Japan)
  "Development of position adjustment system for magnetocardiographic image composition by using triaxial marker coils"

Functional Roles of Cross-Frequency-Coupling in the Neurosciences of Cognition
Cross-frequency-coupling (CFC) is used generically to indicate the inter-dependencies between low-frequency oscillations and high-frequency neural activity. Different types of oscillatory coupling have been reported and MEG is one of the best techniques to provide non-invasive characterization of CFC. This symposium aims to illustrate the possible implications of CFC in neurosciences, highlighting both state-of-the art techniques and up to date thinking on the role of CFC in perception and cognition.

Speakers:

• Ole Jensen (Donders Univ., The Netherlands)
  "Cross-frequency interactions route sensory information to working and long-term memory"
• Markus Siegel (Univ. of Tuebingen, Germany)
  "Large-scale cross-frequency phase-amplitude coupling in the mammalian brain"
• Bernadette Van Wijk (Univ. College, London, UK)
  "Phase-amplitude coupling: the bad guy in movement disorders?"
• Brett Foster (Stanford Univ., USA.)
  "Slow fluctuations of high frequency activity reveal intrinsic network structure in human cortex"

MEG Applied to the Understanding of Complex Cognitive Functions in Paediatrics
MEG, with its excellent spatial and temporal resolution, is the ideal modality to assess typical and atypical development of complex cognitive abilities. Studies show tremendous changes with age not only in the localisation of function in the brain, but particularly in the timing of the processing. The challenge has been to develop age-appropriate MEG tasks that are suitable for children and across an age range, and that assess complex cognitive abilities. Also, the resulting MEG data are more complex to analyse than those from simple sensory or motor tasks, as they often contain overlapping and widespread cortical and sub-cortical sources. This field, however, is one that will have increasing importance in translational clinical work. In this symposium, we bring together researchers to present examples of MEG studies of cognitive functions in typically developing children and clinical groups – ranging from working memory to theory-of-mind to cognitive control. These aspects of cognition have protracted maturational courses, and understanding their development in both typical and atypical populations will also facilitate the understanding of these abilities and the brain-behaviour relations in adult populations.

Speakers:

• Nicola Molinaro, Mikel Lizarazu, Marie Lallier, Mathieu Bourguignon and Manuel Carreiras (Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain)
  "Entraining to auditory stimuli in developmental dyslexia"
• Duncan Astle (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, UK)
  "Altering developing brain systems with cognitive training"
• Marc Vander Ghinst, Xavier de Tiege (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
  "Investigations of speech-in-noise cortical processing in healthy children and patients with Landau-Kleffner syndrome"
• Charline M. Urbain, Veronica Yuk, Sarah Mossad, Rachel Leung, and Margot J. Taylor (Hospital for Sick Children, Univ. of Toronto)
  "Temporo-spatial brain dynamics of executive functions in children with autism"

Simultaneous Recordings of Invasive and Non-Invasive Electrophysiological Data: Novel Insights into Brain Dynamics
Magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography are formidable tools that provide non-invasive access to the complex spatio-temporal dynamics of brain networks at an exquisite temporal resolution. Yet this strength comes at a high cost : Before it reaches the surface, neuronal activity needs to be summed over neuronal ensembles and propagates through large areas of hierarchically organized and connected cerebral structures. Thus, it is not clear to which extent the activity of deep sources such as amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, basal ganglia can be reliably extracted from surface signals. The only way to elucidate the relationships between remote surface signals and actual brain activity is to simultaneously record MEG or EEG with electrodes implanted within the brain. Moreover, such recordings open a unique opportunity to perform a combined analysis at the two levels of recordings, by analyzing networks between deep structures (seen in depth recordings) and the whole cortex (seen by MEG/EEG). Combining insights from invasive and non-invasive methods is an emerging trend that will undoubtedly enhance basic neuroscience as well as clinical research. The invited experts will share past and most recent findings on this topic and will provide an overview of where the field is heading in the near future.

Speakers:

• Jean-Michel Badier (Aix Marseille Université. INSERM. France)
  "Simultaneous MEG and Intracerebral recordings: Technical aspects and Virtual SEEG"
• Stefan Rampp (Univ. Hospital Erlangen, Germany)
  "Invasive EEG and MEG – Clinical value"
• Maité Crespo García (Univ. of Konstanz, Germany)
  "Application of a MEG-iEEG simultaneous recording helps to validate slow-theta power decreases during the encoding of item-place associations"
• Karim Jerbi (Univ. of Montreal, Canada)
  "Sailing the surface or diving into the deep ? Insights from simultaneous invasive and non-invasive brain recordings"
• Vladimir Litvak (UCL Inst. of Neurology)
  "Oscillatory Cortico-Subcortical Networks: An Insight from Combined MEG, Intracranial Recordings and Deep Brain Stimulation"

Recent Advances in Ultra-Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging
In this symposium, seven speakers from five institutions will give a broad overview of recent advances in the technology of Ultra-Low-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (ULF MRI) and its applications. The topics will cover:
· the integration of ULF MRI and MEG using a multichannel SQUID system
· the precise elimination of eddy currents due to pre-polarization pulses
· Ultra-low-noise multichannel-SQUID-System for ULF MRI
· neuronal current imaging by ULF MRI
· study of T1 and T2 of protein gels as a function of magnetic field investigating cross-linkage
· T1 and T2 from in vivo images of the human brain and post-mortem pig brain
· portable ULF-MRI system operational without metallic shielding
The level of presentation will be accessible to a broad audience of BIOMAG attendees.

Speakers:

• Risto Ilmoniemi (Aalto Univ., Finland)
  "What is the intended breakthrough in MEG–MRI?"
• Koos Zevenhoven (Aalto Univ., Finland)
  "Software for ULF MRI: managing the various techniques and hardware"
• Rainer Körber (PTB, Germany)
  "Ultra-low-noise multichannel-SQUID-System for ULF MRI"
• Martin Burghoff (PTB, Germany)
  "Neuronal current imaging by ULF MRI (NCI)"
• Hui Dong ( Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
  "ULF-NMR T1 and T2 of cross-linked proteins: Implications for brain ULF-MRI"
• Seong-min Hwang (KRISS, Korea)
  "ULF MRI of in vivo human brain and post-mortem pig brain"
• Per Magnelind (Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA )
  "Fieldable ultra-low-field MRI systems for non-traditional situations and settings"

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) open novel pathways in cancer therapy and non-invasive diagnostics. The quantitative knowledge of a magnetic anoparticle distribution inside a body is essential for the development of these diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, as the MNP distribution essentially determines drug enrichment and heat production in their application. In the last years, different MNP imaging techniques have emerged, among them Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI), Magnetorelaxometry Imaging (MRXI) and AC susceptibility (ACS) imaging. The latter two, in particular, allow for the quantitative detection of MNP tailored to therapeutic applications in a comparably large field of view. At the same time, excitation fields can be reduced in order to avoid unintentional hyperthermia and neural stimulation during the imaging. This symposium aims at collecting current theoretical and technical developments in the exciting and rapidly expanding field of quantitative nanoparticle imaging for therapeutical and diagnostic applications. It will span a bridge from novel sensor technologies over theoretical modeling and simulations to experimental investigations and in vivo applications. Validating and Evaluating New Methods for Source Analysis

Speakers:

• Claude Fermon (CEA - Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission, France)
  "Spin electronics devices for magnetic particle counting and imaging"
• Victor Lebedev (Univ. of Fribourg, Switzerland)
  "MPI and Imaging MRX with Atomic Magnetometers"
• Annelies Coene (Ghent Univ., Belgium)
  "Comparative study of particle Electron Paramagnetic Resonance and Magnetorelaxometry for quantitative magnetic nanoparticle imaging"
• Maik Liebl (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Germany)
  "Feasibility and capability of magnetorelaxometry imaging as a tool for monitoring of magnetic nanoparticle based cancer therapies in humans"
• Sebastian Waanders (Univ. of Twente, The Netherlands)
  "Numerical modeling and experimental evaluation of magnetic nanoparticle relaxation dynamics in nonstatic magnetic fields using a combined Brownian-Neel relaxation approach"
• Solomon G. Diamond (Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, USA)
  "Nonlinear AC Susceptibility of Magnetic Nanoparticle-Cell Interactions"
• Oswaldo Baffa (Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil)
  "Functional Magnetic Nanoparticle Imaging by AC Biosusceptometry"

Validating and Evaluating New Methods for Source Analysis
In this session, new methods for EEG and MEG source analysis with regard to forward and inverse problem as well as with regard to source connectivity analysis are presented. A special focus is on validation and evaluation frameworks for these new approaches. On the lowest level, the methods are verified in computer simulations with regard to numerical errors using multi-layer sphere models and evaluations are carried out in realistic head models. Technologically, the session will introduce Whitney sources, the complete electrode model and mixed finite element methods to bioelectromagnetism. Source connectivity measures are evaluated with regard to volume conductor modeling defects. On a next higher level, rabbit measurements are used to validate and verify the methods with regard to the overall forward and inverse modeling accuracy and, more specifically, with regard to the impact of skull modeling defects. Finally, validation is brought to the new and multi-modal approaches on presurgical epilepsy diagnosis, where it will be shown, how a multi-focal epilepsy patient can be successfully diagnosed and treated using the presented state of the art methodologies. It is shown how combinations of EEG/MEG and EEG/fMRI can be carried out and that multimodal approaches outperform single modality analysis.

Speakers:

• Sampsa Pursiainen (Tampere Univ. of Tech., Finnland)
  "Validation of Whitney sources and evaluation of differences between the point (PEM) and the complete electrode model (CEM)"
• Johannes Vorwerk (Univ. of Utah, USA)
  "Avoiding Skull Leakages using Mixed-FEM approaches"
• Jae-Hyun Cho (Max Planck Inst. for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany)
  "An evaluation of the sensitivity of EEG and MEG connectivity measures on the source level to head volume conductor properties"
• Stephan Lau (St. Vincent’s Hospital, Univ. of Melbourne, Australia)
  "Validating and evaluating the finite element method using controlled-source MEG-EEG rabbit measurements"
• Ümit Aydin (Concordia Univ., Canada)
  "Multimodal (EEG/MEG, EEG/fMRI) source analysis in epilepsy and controlled tasks"

Combining MEG and Navigated TMS
Magnetic fields can be used both to obtain information from the brain function in MEG studies, and to modify the brain electric activity in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Knowledge about physical properties of the magnetic fields in the brain has enabled development of navigated TMS (nTMS), in which the location and strength of TMS can be calculated based on the model of the individual’s brain. This extension has opened new clinical uses of nTMS in diagnostics as well as in therapy of neurological conditions. This symposium aims at studying the possibilities of combination of the two methods in obtaining benefits for the neurological patients and to study the questions regarding modeling of the magnetic fields relevant to both methods.

Speakers:

• Andrew Papanicolau (The Univ. of Tennessee, USA)
  "Combining MEG and nTMS in epilepsy surgery planning"
• Jyrki Mäkelä (HUS Medical Imaging Center, Finland )
  "Cortical excitability  estimated  by MEG and nTMS in evaluating cortical recovery and effects of rehabilitation"
• Matti Stenroos
  "Improving modeling of the magnetic fields to enhance usability and precision of MEG and nTMS"

How does the Structure of Neural Representations Unfold over Time?
Advances in the Decoding of Time-Resolved High-Dimensional Neural Data
The past few decades have seen significant advances in our understanding of which brain regions are involved in particular cognitive tasks and processes. Additionally, the fine temporal resolution offered by magneto- and electroencephalography, and invasive electrophysiology, is providing us with an ever more detailed picture of the temporal evolution of these cognitive processes. However, it is less clear exactly how the brain implements them: how are cognitive computations subserved by specific neural representations? How are these representations transformed over time? This symposium will present five lines of experimental research, showing how the decoding of micro- and macroscopic neural signals (from spikes to whole-brain MEG) allows us to dissociate and simultaneously track multiple, distributed neuronal computations. Specifically, we will demonstrate how the structure, modulation, and re-activation of neural representations can be identified with novel multivariate approaches in a variety of visual and cognitive tasks.

Speakers:

• Eelke Spaak (Univ. of Oxford, UK)
  "Multivariate analyses of primate prefrontal cortex activity reveal simultaneously stable and dynamic coding for working memory"
• Jean-Remi King (New York Univ., USA)
  "The selective maintenance of sensory features is dissociated from their visibility"
• Anna Jafarpour (Univ. of California-Berkeley, USA)
  "Decoding content of working memory using MVPA"
• Radoslaw Martin Cichy (Free Univ. Berlin, Germany)
  "A spatio-temporally resolved and algorithmically explicit account combining MEG with fMRI and neural networks"
• Nicholas Myers (Univ. of Oxford, UK)
  "Testing sensory evidence against mnemonic templates"

Decoding Aberrant Coupling and Oscillatory Dynamics within Motor Circuits in Parkinson's Disease
The advent of deep brain stimulation enabled researchers to directly record local-field potential (LFP) data from basal ganglia structures in humans, and recent work combining magnetoencephalography (MEG) and such LFP recordings has revolutionized our understanding of the pathophysiology that underlies Parkinson’s disease (PD). In this symposium, international leaders in this field will discuss their latest findings using LFP, MEG, and LFP+MEG approaches. Specifically, the symposium opens with a discussion of frequency-specific subcortico-cortical connectivity, recorded by simultaneous LFP-MEG recordings, that distinguishes PD from other movement disorders such as dystonia. The second talk with highlight recent data connecting resting tremor to beta oscillatory activity and coherence between the subthalamic nucleus and motor cortices. Next, new data linking the severity of rigidity/bradykinesia in patients with PD to phase-amplitude coupling between ongoing beta and ultra-high frequency oscillations (150-400 Hz) will be presented. Finally, recent MEG findings will be presented that identify the physiological signature of symptom laterality in PD. Together, this series of talks will demonstrate the groundbreaking progress that has recently emerged in our understanding of the pathophysiology of PD, and will introduce critical new avenues in the search for a physiological marker of disease progression and treatment efficacy.

Speakers:

• Wolf-Julian Neumann (Univ. Medicine Berlin, Germany)
  "What local field potentials have taught us about the pathophysiology of movement disorders"
• Markus Butz(Heinrich-Heine-Univ. Düsseldorf, Germany)
  "Oscillatory basal ganglia - cortex signature of Parkinsonian rest tremor"
• Bernadette Van Wijk (Univ. College London, UK)
  "High-frequency oscillations as a new window into Parkinson’s disease"
• Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham (Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, USA)
  "The importance of symptom laterality in studying oscillatory patterns in Parkinson’s "

Neural Mechanisms of Language Integration and Prediction
Language comprehension relies on several brain regions interacting on a very fast time-scale in order to support the required cognitive operations. Two important processes that contribute to successful language processing are integration and prediction. Integration refers to the combination of lexical, syntactic, semantic and contextual information, whereas prediction refers to an anticipatory pre-activation of words amongst others based on contextual information. Integration serves as a basis for prediction and in turn prediction facilitates the integration of upcoming words. In order to understand the brain mechanisms involved in language processing, it is important to characterize neural activities related to integration and prediction in the brain, both in time and in space. In this symposium, speakers will present human electrophysiological data including MEG to better understand the network dynamics underlying integration and prediction in language processing.

Speakers:

• Liina Pylkkänen (New York Univ., USA)
  "The brain’s combinatory network as revealed by MEG"
• Ole Jensen (Univ. of Bermingham, UK)
  "Alpha oscillations in the language network reflect prediction during reading"
• Nicola Molinaro and Mikel Lizarazu (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain)
  "The role of cortical oscillations during speech processing"
• Lars Meyer (Univ. of Potsdam, Germany)
  "Chunk, Store, and Integrate: Neural Oscillations during Sentence Comprehension"

The Complex Scenario of Dynamic Large Scale Interactions at Rest
In recent years, fMRI analysis of interactions in the absence of any external stimulus (resting state) subdivided the cortex into a moderate number of functional parcels consisting of regions showing correlated activity over long periods of time (resting state networks, RSN [1]). The function of such interactions at rest and their link with the multifaceted aspects of behavior can only be explained by including the temporal dimension. As a matter of fact MEG studies on resting state interactions in spontaneous rhythmic activity of the brain suggest more complex structures of communication, involving frequency-specific interactions determining dynamic patterns of local and global integration [2-4] and spectrally-selective dynamic changes following task [5]. In this framework, the recent technical advances and the related interpretations in the dynamics of MEG resting state interactions are here reported. Results on the investigation of different aspects of architecture dynamics through linear and non linear analyses in time-frequency domain and at multiple spatio-temporal scales and the related functional role are discussed.
[1] Power JD et al., (2014) Neuron
[2] De Pasquale F et al., (2012) Neuron
[3] Brookes M et al., (2011) PNAS
[4] Hipp JF et al., (2012) Nature Neuroscience
[5] Betti V et al., (2013) Neuron

Speakers:

• Robert Oostenveld (Radboud Univ., The Netherlands / NatMEG; Karolinska Inst., Sweden)
  "On the large scale of studying dynamics with MEG: lessons from the HCP"
• Joerg Hipp (F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., Switzerland)
  "BOLD fMRI Correlation Reflects Frequency-Specific Neuronal Correlation"
• J. Matias Palva (Univ. of Helsinki, Finland)
  "Functional connectivity and critical dynamics are co-localized in the human brain"
• Matthew Brookes (Univ. of Nottingham, UK)
  "Imaging transient networks using power envelope correlation: from methods to clinical application"
• Stefania Della Penna (Univ. of Chieti, Italy)
  "Dynamical architecture of resting state networks reveals frequency-specific prior and idling states"

Beyond fMRI: What MEG Reveals about Functional Connectivity in the Time Domain
Brain activity is highly dynamic and is non-stationary. This fact should be obvious by observation of behavior. Functional imaging methods such as fMRI have emphasized the correlations of sub-Hertz activity. Electrophysiological methods such as MEG provide resolution of fast events in both the time and frequency domain. In this symposium we will explore how application of linear and non-linear techniques to MEG reveal the rapidly changing brain dynamics.

Speakers:

• Mark Woolrich (Univ. of Oxford, UK)
  "Fast transient spectrally-distinct networks"
• Allison Nugent (NIMH/NIH, USA)
  "Major Depressive Disorder: Disruption across the frequency spectrum"
• Michael Wibral (Goethe Univ., Germany)
  "Tracking information transfer through cortex with (almost) single sample resolution"
• Matthew Brookes (Univ. of Nottingham, UK)
  "Connectivity: It’s About Time…"
• Stephen E. Robinson (NIMH/NIH, USA)
  "Frequency dependencies of information transfer"

Improving Source Reconstruction for MEG and EEG in Children
The European Brain Council (EBC) has recommended disorders of the brain to be prioritized for funding. One successful example of this is the Marie Curie Innovative Training Network ChildBrain (see http://www.childbrain.eu) which aims on the one hand to train young researchers and on the other hand to utilize evidence-based neuroscientific knowledge for helping children, especially those at high risk for dropout due to neurocognitive disorders, to meet future educational and societal demands.
In the ChildBrain network we develop new, innovative brain imaging-based tools in collaboration between research and industry and that can be applied by researchers and clinicians.
MEG and EEG data acquisition (movements and SNR) and modelling (volume conduction) are specifically challenging in children. In this proposed Biomag2016 session we will highlight the ChildBrain brain research methods work package. This provides not only value to the use of MEG and EEG in children, but will also contribute to improving the application in adults.

Speakers:

• Abinash Pant (BESA GmbH, Germany)
  "An automatic Markov Random Field-based approach for segmentation of volume conductor models of the human head"
• Theo Papadopoulo (INRIA, France)
  "Modeling thin tissue compartments using the immersed FEM (continuous Galerkin) "
• Andreas Nüßing (Univ. of Münster, Germany)
  "The unfitted discontinuous Galerkin FEM for the EEG forward problem"
• Johannes Vorwerk (Univ. of Münster, Germany)
  "The FieldTrip-SimBio pipeline for FEM-based EEG forward computations"
• Jukka Nenonen (Elekta Oy, Finland)
  "Improving the SNR in pediatric MEG studies"

MEG Detection of Low to High Frequency Neuromagnetic Activity
Recent success in localizing low- (LFBS, 0-14 Hz) and high-frequency brain signals (HFBS, 70-2,884 Hz) opens a new window for the study of epilepsy, migraine and potentially many other disorders using magnetoencephalography (MEG). This topic is very important and interesting because both clinicians and basic researchers can benefit from it. For example: (1) localization of HFBS can increase the effectiveness of epilepsy surgery by approximately 30%. By promoting the applications of HFBS, MEG tests may result in millions of intractable epilepsy patients being seizure free. (2) By using LFBS and HFBS, MEG has revealed that migraine has abnormal cortical excitability and that medications normalizing cortical excitability can reduce the incidence of migraine attacks. (3) A discussion of LFBS and HFBS can advance our understanding of the cerebral mechanisms of multi-frequency brain activity. In addition, MEG hardware and software developers may use LFBS and HFBS to create novel solutions for diagnosis and treatment of many brain disorders.

Speakers:

• Milena Korostenskaja (Florida Hospital for Children, USA)
  "High Gamma Functional Mapping for epilepsy surgery"
• Kimberly A. Leiken (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA)
  "Assessment of Cortical Excitability in Migraine with Neuromagnetic High-frequency Signals"
• Woorim Jeong (Seoul Nat'l Univ. Hospital and Seoul Nat'l Univ. College of Natural Science, Korea)
  "Usefulness of multiple frequency band source localizations in ictal MEG"
• Yuping Wang (Capital Medical Univ., China)
  "MEG low frequency activity detection for the localization of temporal lobe epilepsy"
• Stefan Rampp (Univ. Hospital Erlangen, Germany)
  "Low frequency activity in patients with focal epilepsy"

Cognitive and Computational Approaches to Understand Brain Diseases
This symposium discusses cognitive and computational approaches to understand neural circuits across the temporal to frontal lobe that generate flexible behaviors, thereby forming the neural basis of various brain diseases. Speakers provide a brief overview of progresses in applying advanced neural analysis techniques to brain data, such as an iEEG monitoring, a multivoxel pattern analysis, and a model-based fMRI analysis. These approaches provides effective tools for detecting impairment of neural circuits that may inform early diagnosis and systematic treatments for some brain diseases.

Speakers:

• Yongseok Yo (Hongik Univ., Korea)
  “Predictive Analytics for Temporal Lobe Epilepsy”
• Sue-Hyun Lee (KAIST, Korea)
  “Decoding retrieved face information in humans”
• Sang Wan Lee (KAIST, Korea)
  “Prefrontal cognitive controllability and mental disorders”

MEG, EEG and fMRI at Rest: Complementary Windows on Spontaneous Brain Activity
MEG and EEG signals are both generated by primary currents within local cortical neuron populations, whereas fMRI is usually interpreted as a marker of neural function. The studies presented will show that neural and BOLD responses are two distinct measures, which can when brought together provide a more global picture of brain activity. PET and fMRI studies revealed the existence of resting-state networks, that can be relatively easily identified in individuals but remain difficult to interpret in relation to neural function. The relationship with EEG and MEG rhythms recorded during rest should therefore lead to a better understanding of these phenomena. An overview will be presented of some key findings on resting-state activity in healthy and diseased brains with special emphasis on the complementarity of various modalities, brought together through data fusion and computational modelling.

Speakers:

• Seppo P. Ahlfors (Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, USA)
  "Complementary properties of MEG, EEG, and fMRI"
• Diego Vidaurre (Univ. of Oxford, UK / Aarhus Univ., Denmark)
  "Large-scale resting-state networks: complementary views from different modalities"
• Pauly P.W. Ossenblok (Kempenhaeghe&Maastricht UMC+; Eindhoven Univ. of Tech., The Netherlands)
  "MEG vs EEG correlated functional MRI in epilepsy research"

Language Changes in Childhood: the Impact of Typical Development, Disease and Therapy
Language is a complex process that undergoes extensive changes with development, is impacted by disease in the brain, and can be rehabilitated with specific treatments. MEG, with its exquisite temporal and spatial resolution, is ideal for tracking language-specific plasticity. The speakers in this symposium will describe the use of MEG to examine these different processes. The first speaker will describe the brain oscillatory changes related to language processing in typically developing children and adolescents. The second speaker will describe a multimodal approach using MEG with fMRI to map language networks in children with epilepsy. The third speaker will present the impact of speech therapy on improving speech outcomes for young children, as captured by MEG. This symposium presents novel approaches to acquiring and analyzing MEG data in children, and emphasizes the valuable contribution of MEG to understanding language plasticity and brain networks.

Speakers:

• Sam M. Doesburg (Simon Fraser Univ., Canada)
  "Development of language networks in childhood"
• Darren S. Kadis (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA)
  "Multi-modal approach to language mapping in children with epilepsy"
• Vickie Y. Yu (California State Univ., USA)
  "MEG tracks brain changes related to speech therapy in young children"

Signal or Noise: Individual Differences in Alpha Peak Frequency
Historically, individual alpha frequency (IAF) is one of the most commonly used markers of inter-individual variations in brain rhythms, and is often considered a stable neurophysiological trait. The purpose of this symposium is to present up-to-date views on the mechanisms underlying flexibility and variability of the alpha rhythm and its functional roles, based on large-sample EEG/MEG recordings and intracranial ECoG in humans, in combination with advanced data analysis methods, and non-invasive brain stimulation protocols. In this symposium, Haegens will highlight fundamental methodological considerations related to assessment of IAF, with the emphasis both on inter-individual variability, andon intra-individual variability across brain regions. Thereafter, Gulbinaite will focus on IAF variations in the context of modern theories on the role of alpha oscillations in perception and attention. Finally, Herrmann will elucidate the conditions under which the endogenous alpha rhythm can be “hijacked” using brain stimulation and the limits of such interventions in modulating cognition. In summary, this symposium will call into question traditional ideas on the stability notion of IAF and bring discussion on how inter- and intra-individual “noise” in alpha rhythm can be turned into “signal” for studying the functional role of alpha oscillations, and frequency-band specific brain networks more generally.

Speakers:

• Saskia Haegens (Columbia Univ., USA)
  "Variability of the alpha rhythm across individuals, cognitive tasks and brain regions"
• Rasa Gulbinaite and Rufin VanRullen (Universite Paul Sabatier, France)
  "What works for you, doesn’t work for me: Individual alpha frequency in perceptual and attentional processes"
• Christoph S. Herrmann and Annika Notbohm (Carl von Ossietzky Univ., Germany)
  "Entrainment of human alpha rhythm modulates cognition"