Terminology

• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is the recording of magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain.
• Magnetocardiography (MCG) is the recording of magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the heart.
• Neuromagnetism is a near synonym of MEG, meaning the study of neuronal activity by means of magnetic fields.
• Cardiomagnetism is a synonym of MCG.
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is magnetic stimulation of the brain through the skull. There is more TMS terminology on TMS pages.
• Near Infrared Optical Specroscopy (NIRS) is a new imaging method that uses near infrared light.
• Magnetic source imaging (MSI) refers to studies where the distribution of sources (or source current distributions) of magnetic fields are determined on the basis of external measurements.
• Magnetic field tomography (MFT) is a near-synonym of MSI. The intent here is to produce tomographic images displaying neural electrical activity estimated on the basis of measured magnetic fields.
• The SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) is the most sensitive detector of magnetic fields. It is a superconducting ring that includes one or two Josephson junctions.
• A Josephson junction is a barrier for current flow between two superconductors. It is usually made of an insulator, but could also be a thin vacuum gap or a very narrow constriction in the superconductor.
• LORETA or Low Resolution Electromagnetic Tomography is a term introduced by Pasqual-Marqui and Michel for their method of solving the bioelectromagnetic inverse problem.