Tynan Stevens1,
2, Steven Beyea, 12, Ryan D'Arcy3, Tim Bardouille2,
David Clarke1, 4
1Dalhousie
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; 2NRC, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada; 3Frasier Health Authority, Surrey, British
Columbia, Canada; 4Neurosurgery, Capital District Health, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada
Functional brain imaging must demonstrate precise functional localization for application to presurgical planning. We investigated two leading candidate technologies - fMRI and MEG - in this context. We implemented a simple grip-force task that has been shown to predominately activate the primary motor region. We evaluated localizing ability using several metrics, including peak activation magnitude (within an anatomically defined ROI), activation extent, laterality, anatomical specificity, and reliability of activated regions. We found that similar peak activation magnitude, lateralization, and reliability could be achieved with either modality. However, fMRI had advantages in terms of specificity to our anatomically defined ROIs.