Neurodynamic measures of functional connectivity and cognition

Excerpt

Exploring the structure and function of the human brain relies on a range of non-invasive measures and computational approaches. Neurodynamic functional brain imaging methods offer unique insight into the human brain processes by capturing neuronal activity in real time. Measurements of scalp potential differences of spontaneous and evoked activity were the first electrophysiological measure that revealed differences in the measured waveforms which were state, stimulus, task, context etc. dependant. Four decades ago the application of ultrasensitive superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) for the measurements of extremely week magnetic fields of the human brain led to a dynamic development of magnetoecephalography (MEG) research [2]. Development of this new functional brain imaging method resulted in opening new questions and furthering the analysis of the EEG/ERP as well since the interest of MEG researchers moved from the analysis based on the evaluations of the measured waveforms to explore the approaches to identify and track cortical activations in space and time. Spatio-temporal source localization models and inverse bio-electro-magnetic problem estimation approaches were developed to estimate the underlying neuronal substrates of the evoked activity related to sensory perception, movement, and cognition. Exploration of the underlying dynamic cortical networks of the working human brain was made possible not only in the measurement space but also at the functional source level. …