So at the moment if we want to measure what the brain is doing,
if we want to measure brain function,
there are a few ways of doing it but one way is Magnetoencephalography, or MEG.
The idea of MEG is that we measure magnetic fields that exist outside the head
that are generated by current flow in the brain
and in that way we can work out what the brain was doing at any one time.
The problem with current MEG scanners
is that they're very large, they're very bulky
and they're one-size-fits-all.
The gap in the market, if that's the right expression,
is for a scanner which you can wear on your head.
So you put it on like a helmet, you can wear it on your head
whilst we're acquiring brain imaging data.
So to build a wearable imaging system you really need two things.
You need very, very sensitive magnetic field sensors
that are small, lightweight and that can go on the head
and that's what we had with the quantum sensors
and then you need a way to house them on the head.
And so to do that we built a 3D-printed head cast
and that would house the quantum sensors close to the scalp.
And that was designed based on a single subject's head shape.
I volunteered to be that subject and yeah, that's...
...so this helmet accommodates 13 sensors
which are over the motor region,
the right motor region of my brain.
I'm putting it all together.
It just fits....
Yeah, so it fits perfectly on my head.
The quantum sensors give us the magnetic fields
that are produced by our brain at any one time.
And by knowing also the location of these sensors with respect to the brain,
we can localize which area of the brain was responsible for the movement
and also when that part of the brain was engaged in that certain task.
Ideally we would be looking at something more generic
like, something like a bike helmet
which could be adaptable to any anyone's head size
and could just hold the sensors
without having to build something specifically for just one person.
There are a number of challenges but probably the biggest one we had was
reducing the Earth's magnetic field.
So if you want somebody to be able to move with a scanner on their head,
and that scanner's measuring magnetic fields,
you need to somehow remove the Earth's magnetic field.
So when they told me on day one that my job was going to be
to remove the Earth's magnetic field
that sounded more like a joke they tell to new starters than anything else.
The way we went about this was to build these new electromagnetic coils
that produce fields that are equal and opposite
to the Earth's magnetic field.
So the mathematics required to design these coils to reduce the magnetic field
is actually quite complex, it's quite a large challenge,
but then once you've got past all of that the actual making of the coils is
bits of wood, bits of masking tape, bits of glue and bits of wire,
so it's a massive contrast really in what you're doing.
They're housed on two planes either side of the subject,
so you've got one going down here, one going down here.
And that keeps the scanner quite open, you can walk in and out of it.
Crucially it meant that the sensors wouldn't fail
if the subject moved even by a tiny amount,
and that meant that any information we were getting from the sensors
we knew was coming from the brain and that we would be able to do these cool experiments.
With this new technology,
scanning babies, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds
is going to become possible.
So that brings into play a number of different disorders
like epilepsy but also things like autism.
I think we will certainly be able to really start seeing
the neural substrates that underlie these disorders in children.
Should I get this rid of this?
It's up to you!
[laughter]