Simultaneous EEG–fMRI

Abstract

Acquisition of electroencephalogram (EEG) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides an additional monitoring tool for the analysis of brain state fluctuations. The exploration of brain responses following inputs or in the context of state changes is crucial for a better understanding of the basic principles governing large-scale neuronal dynamics. State-of-the-art techniques allow EEG activity-from DC (direct current) up to high frequencies in the gamma range-to be acquired simultaneously with fMRI data. In the interleaved mode, spiking activities can also be assessed during concurrent fMRI. The utilization of fMRI evidence to better constrain solutions of the inverse problem of source localization of EEG activity is an exciting possibility. Nonetheless, this approach should be applied cautiously since the degree of overlap between underlying neuronal activity sources is variable and, for the most part, unknown. The ultimate goal is to make joint inferences about the activity, dynamics, and functions by exploiting complementary information from multimodal data sets.