Studies on novel measurement methods of brain functions with optical super-sensitive atomic magnetometers

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26560466
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Brain biometrics
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Kobayashi Tetsuo 京都大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (40175336)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): OIDA TAKENORI 京都大学, 大学院工学研究科, 助教 (70447910)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 光ポンピング / 原子磁気センサ / 神経磁場 / MEG / fMRI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The goal of this study was to develop super-sensitive optically pumped atomic magnetometers to measure magnetoencephalograms (MEGs) and to propose a new principle of functional MRI as well. First, we could successfully increase the sensitivity of optically pumped atomic magnetometers (OPAMs) with our newly developed optical gradiometers, in which the differential output of two distinct measurement areas inside a glass cell was obtained directly via the magneto-optical rotation of one probe beam. Next, we fabricated novel module type OPAMs and could measure visually evoked magnetic fields with them. Furthermore, we carried out theoretical and experimental studies on a MRI with spin-lock sequence, which has potential to detect neural magnetic field dependent (NMFD) changes in MR signal intensities and could measure alternating very small magnetic fields in a biological phantom with high (7T) and low (0.3T) MRIs. The results were validated by numerical calculations based on the Bloch.

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