MEGIN Spotlight – Hokkaido University in Japan

MEGIN welcomed Professor Yokosawa from the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Associate Professor Shiraishi from the Paediatric Neurology Department focusing on epilepsy for this month’s spotlight episode. Hokkaido University has two MEG devices, one for clinical use and the other for research use. They are located 50 metres apart but close enough to be directly connected by high-speed optical fibres. Hokkaido University then connected them, and provided a microphone, loudspeakers, cameras, and projectors, so that the two people can talk in a face-to-face manner, under MEG recording. This allows for two brain activities to be recorded simultaneously. The transmission delay of the sound and the image are very short so that the participants can have natural communication. In communication, eye contact is also important. Participants can gaze at each other through a half-mirror system. This kind of simultaneous recording of multiple brain activities is called hyper-scanning.

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