Validation of On-Head OPM MEG for Language Laterality Assessment

Pre-surgical localization of language function in the brain is critical for patients with medically intractable epilepsy. MEG has emerged as a valuable clinical tool for localizing language areas in clinical populations, however, it is limited for widespread application due to the low availability of the system. Recent advances in optically pumped magnetometer (OPM) systems account for some of the limitations of traditional MEG and have been shown to have a similar signal-to-noise ratio. However, the novelty of these systems means that they have only been tested for limited sensory and motor applications. In this work, we aim to validate a novel on-head OPM MEG procedure for lateralizing language processes. OPM recordings, using a soft cap with flexible sensor placement, were collected from 19 healthy, right-handed controls during an auditory word recognition task. The resulting evoked fields were assessed for hemispheric laterality of the response. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the grand average language response indicated that the first two principal components were lateralized to the left hemisphere. The PCA also revealed that all participants had evoked topographies that closely resembled the average left-lateralized response. Left-lateralized responses were consistent with what is expected for a group of healthy right-handed individuals. These findings demonstrate that language-related evoked fields can be elucidated from on-head OPM MEG recordings in a group of healthy adult participants. In the future, on-head OPM MEG and the associated lateralization methods should be validated in patient populations as they may have utility in the pre-surgical mapping of language functions in patients with epilepsy.