Biomagnetism Course

Lesson 1 • Biological Sources of Magnetic Signals

Surveys the major organs and tissues that produce detectable biomagnetic fields. Establishes signal amplitude ranges and physiological significance.

Lesson 2 • Fundamental Magnetic Concepts

Covers magnetic field quantities, units, and material properties essential for understanding biological signals. Builds the physics vocabulary used throughout the course.

Lesson 3 • History and Scope of Biomagnetism

Traces biomagnetism from early electrophysiology discoveries to modern applications. Contextualises the field within biophysics and medical diagnostics.

Lesson 4 • Signal Magnitudes and Noise Environment

Quantifies biomagnetic signal strengths relative to environmental magnetic noise. Motivates the need for specialised shielding and detection technologies.

Lesson 1 • Action Potential Generation and Propagation

Details the phases of the action potential and conduction velocity along excitable cells. Directly links depolarisation wavefronts to current dipole formation.

Lesson 2 • Cardiac Electrophysiology Essentials

Reviews cardiac conduction system anatomy and the electrical events of the cardiac cycle. Prepares students for magnetocardiography signal interpretation.

Lesson 3 • Cell Membrane Electrical Properties

Covers resting membrane potential, ion channels, and the equivalent circuit model of the cell membrane. Provides the cellular foundation for signal generation.

Lesson 4 • Neural Electrophysiology Essentials

Covers synaptic potentials, cortical oscillations, and network-level neural activity. Prepares students for magnetoencephalography signal interpretation.

Lesson 1 • SQUID Sensor Principles

Explains superconductivity, Josephson junctions, and flux quantisation underlying SQUID operation. Establishes why SQUIDs achieve femtotesla sensitivity.

Lesson 2 • Fluxgate and Induction Coil Sensors

Covers lower-sensitivity sensors used in research, industrial, and geophysical biomagnetic contexts. Provides a comparative baseline against SQUID and OPM technologies.

Lesson 3 • Calibration and Performance Metrics

Defines sensitivity, dynamic range, bandwidth, and cross-talk for biomagnetic sensors. Establishes quantitative benchmarks for system evaluation and quality assurance.

Lesson 4 • Optically Pumped Magnetometers

Introduces atomic magnetometry using spin-polarised vapour cells as an alternative to cryogenic sensors. Highlights advantages for wearable and room-temperature systems.

Lesson 1 • Passive Magnetic Shielding Design

Explains high-permeability and eddy-current shielding mechanisms in magnetically shielded rooms. Covers material selection, layer configuration, and shielding factor calculation.

Lesson 2 • Signal Preprocessing and Artifact Removal

Introduces filtering, independent component analysis, and signal space projection for artefact suppression. Prepares students for clean data input to source analysis pipelines.

Lesson 3 • Sources of Environmental Magnetic Noise

Catalogues power-line interference, urban magnetic noise, and vibration-induced artefacts. Quantifies noise levels that shielding must attenuate.

Lesson 4 • Active Noise Cancellation Systems

Describes feedback and feedforward coil systems that dynamically cancel residual magnetic noise. Connects control theory concepts to practical biomagnetic lab implementation.

Lesson 1 • Forward Problem Formulation

Derives the relationship between source currents and external magnetic fields using volume conductor models. Establishes the mathematical basis for all inverse methods.

Lesson 2 • Bayesian and Data-Driven Approaches

Presents Bayesian inference frameworks and machine learning methods for source localisation. Highlights advantages in handling uncertainty and incorporating prior anatomical knowledge.

Lesson 3 • Dipole Fitting Methods

Covers single and multiple equivalent current dipole fitting using nonlinear optimisation. Evaluates goodness-of-fit criteria and confidence volume estimation.

Lesson 4 • Distributed Source Imaging Methods

Introduces minimum norm, LORETA, and beamformer approaches for distributed source reconstruction. Compares spatial resolution and depth bias across methods.

Lesson 1 • MCG in Ischaemia and Arrhythmia Detection

Demonstrates MCG sensitivity to myocardial ischaemia and arrhythmogenic substrates. Compares diagnostic performance with conventional electrocardiographic methods.

Lesson 2 • MCG Data Quality and Reproducibility

Addresses sources of MCG data variability and methods to ensure measurement reliability. Covers inter-session reproducibility and quality control metrics.

Lesson 3 • MCG Signal Features and Waveforms

Identifies MCG waveform components corresponding to cardiac electrical events. Correlates MCG morphology with simultaneous ECG for validation.

Lesson 4 • Current Density Mapping in MCG

Applies inverse problem solutions to reconstruct cardiac current distributions from MCG data. Introduces pseudo-current density and magnetic field maps.

Lesson 1 • Clinical MEG Applications

Surveys MEG use in epilepsy focus localisation, presurgical mapping, and cognitive neurology. Demonstrates translation from research findings to clinical decision support.

Lesson 2 • MEG System Setup and Data Acquisition

Covers helmet sensor array geometry, head digitisation, and acquisition parameter selection. Establishes the workflow from subject preparation to raw data storage.

Lesson 3 • Evoked Response Analysis

Explains averaging techniques to extract stimulus-locked evoked fields from ongoing brain activity. Covers auditory, visual, and somatosensory evoked field paradigms.

Lesson 4 • Oscillatory Brain Activity Analysis

Introduces time-frequency analysis methods to quantify neural oscillations in MEG data. Covers event-related synchronisation and desynchronisation phenomena.

Lesson 1 • Multimodal Integration with EEG and fMRI

Addresses simultaneous and sequential combination of MEG with EEG and fMRI for complementary spatiotemporal resolution. Covers data fusion methods and practical constraints.

Lesson 2 • Magnetic Nanoparticles in Biomagnetism

Covers superparamagnetic nanoparticle properties and their use as tracers in magnetic particle imaging. Connects nanoparticle physics to biomagnetic detection strategies.

Lesson 3 • Biomagnetic Imaging of Other Organs

Extends biomagnetic methods to liver iron quantification, gastrointestinal motility, and lung function. Demonstrates the versatility of the measurement framework beyond brain and heart.

Lesson 4 • Wearable and On-Scalp MEG Systems

Examines OPM-based wearable MEG systems that allow natural movement during recording. Addresses sensor crosstalk, dynamic range, and field nulling challenges.