title: MEG dual scanning: a procedure to study real-time auditory interaction between two persons.
abstract: Social interactions fill our everyday life and put strong demands on our brain function. However, the possibilities for studying the brain basis of social interaction are still technically limited, and even modern brain imaging studies of social cognition typically monitor just one participant at a time. We present here a method to connect and synchronize two faraway neuromagnetometers. With this method, two participants at two separate sites can interact with each other through a stable real-time audio connection with minimal delay and jitter. The magnetoencephalographic (MEG) and audio recordings of both laboratories are accurately synchronized for joint offline analysis. The concept can be extended to connecting multiple MEG devices around the world. As a proof of concept of the MEG-to-MEG link, we report the results of time-sensitive recordings of cortical evoked responses to sounds delivered at laboratories separated by 5 km.
authors.affiliation: Brain Research Unit and MEG Core, O.V. Lounasmaa Laboratory, School of Science, Aalto University Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baess
authors.forename: Andrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhdanov
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mandel
authors.forename: Lauri
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Parkkonen
authors.forename: Lotta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hirvenkari
authors.forename: Jyrki P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Mäkelä
authors.forename: Veikko
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jousmäki
authors.forename: Riitta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hari