Infant brain imaging using magnetoencephalography: Challenges, solutions, and best practices
Open accessAbstract
The excellent temporal resolution and advanced spatial resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG) makes it an excellent tool to study the neural dynamics underlying cognitive processes in the developing brain. Nonetheless, a number of challenges exist when using MEG to image infant populations. There is a persistent belief that collecting MEG data with infants presents a number of limitations and challenges that are difficult to overcome. Due to this notion, many researchers either avoid conducting infant MEG research or believe that, in order to collect high‐quality data, they must impose limiting restrictions on the infant or the experimental paradigm. In this article, we discuss the various challenges unique to imaging awake infants and young children with MEG, and share general best‐practice guidelines and recommendations for data collection, acquisition, preprocessing, and analysis. The current article is focused on methodology that allows investigators to test the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive capacities of awake and moving infants. We believe that such methodology opens the pathway for using MEG to provide mechanistic explanations for the complex behavior observed in awake, sentient, and dynamically interacting infants, thus addressing core topics in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
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Both research assistants who ran the MEG appointments completed 15-20 practice sessions with infants in an MEG simulator to learn techniques and best practices in infant neuroimaging studies, ensuring the success of data collection.
“Additionally, both research assistants who ran the MEG appointments (first and second author) completed 15–20 practice sessions with infants in an MEG simulator to learn techniques and best practices in infant neuroimaging studies [56], ensuring the success of data collection.”
For all MEG appointments, the study follows the best practices outlined by Clarke et al.
“For all MEG appointments, we follow the best practices outlined by Clarke et al. [56].”
From Tracking Acquisition of Language in Kids (TALK) study protocol: A longitudinal investigation of infants at high vs. low risk for atypical speech and language development (2026) · cites this paper as Clarke et al. [56]
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- Authors
- Clarke, M. D., Bosseler, A. N., Mizrahi, J. C., Peterson, E. R., Larson, E., Meltzoff, A. N., Kuhl, P. K., & Taulu, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Corresponding author
- Clarke, Maggie D.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Human Brain Mapping
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2022-04-16
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 3609-3619
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0193
- PMC
- PMC9294291
- OpenAlex
- W4223991601
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 1.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (R01‐NS104585)
- Overdeck Family Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- infant brain imaging, magnetoencephalography, infant cognitive development, developmental cognitive neuroscience, best practices
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Brain Mapping, Child, Child, Preschool, Head, Humans, Infant, Magnetoencephalography
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