That combination is important for I-LABS research, says Erica Stevens, the Institute’s assistant director. Stevens offers the example of language acquisition research. To learn how and when babies begin to recognize and favor their native language, scientists compare babies’ brain responses when they hear their native language and a foreign language. “The timing of their reaction is critical,” says Stevens, “since the difference between lots of speech sounds is on a millisecond basis.”
How can MEG track such subtle responses? By detecting magnetic fields. When the brain’s neurons are activated by sounds or other stimuli, they generate tiny electrical currents. These currents create a magnetic field that radiates to the outside of the head. MEG’s sensors (housed in a device that resembles a hair dryer on steroids) measure these tiny magnetic fields from over 300 locations on the outside of the head, recording the patterns and time course of neural activation in the brain.
Patricia Kuhl, I-LABS co-director (with Andrew Meltzoff), first heard about MEG ten years ago. She was in Tokyo, where the technology was already being used, but not with young children. “Some of the researchers at a party I was attending were talking about MEG,” she recalls. “They were all eating and drinking sake and having a wonderful time, and I was hopping around the room asking questions about MEG and getting increasingly excited.” By the end of the party, Kuhl and Japanese colleagues agreed to have a UW doctoral student come to Japan to explore the possibility of using MEG to test infants and small children. In one evening, a collaboration was born.
At that time, MEG required subjects to remain completely still. Even a few millimeters of movement could be problematic. This, of course, limited the technology’s effectiveness with children. But Toshi Imada, now a research professor in the UW Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, has since collaborated with Finnish researchers to invent a head-tracking system that enables the machine to calibrate and thus tolerate some movement.
“The child wears a little stretchy nylon cap with four sensors on it,” explains Stevens. “The machine detects the position of those sensors at all times and can correct for any movement the child makes. I-LABS is the first in the world to test awake babies in a MEG machine while they are doing a mental task, and this head-tracking gear makes it possible.”
So far, all of I-LABS’s MEG-based research has been done abroad, in collaboration with institutions in Japan, Taiwan, and Finland that have MEG machines. This has required UW scientists and research technicians to be away from their families for months at a time. “It’s definitely not a convenient way to do research,” says Stevens. “It’s just a lot more difficult.”
Within a year, I-LABS scientists will be able to conduct studies using a MEG machine in their own building. Before the machine arrives, I-LABS must renovate a space to house it; after its arrival the machine must be calibrated and staff will be trained to use it. Once the machine is fully operational, it will be available for use by researchers across the University, across the state, and beyond. “We conceive of it as being a regional resource,” says Stevens.
Kuhl credits I-LABS’s 10-member volunteer board with making all this possible. It was the board’s encouragement and guidance that led I-LABS to seek the LSDF grant and private support.
“It has taken enormous effort, but we are seeing a ten-year vision realized,” says Kuhl. “I can’t overstate the board’s importance in getting us to realize this dream.”