Influence of Brain Conductivity on Magnetoencephalographic Simulations in Realistic Head Models

work was supported by NIH NCRR Grant No. 5P41RR012553. Abstract— The influence of brain tissue conductivity magnetoencephalography (MEG) has been largely nown. We compared the normal component of the netic field calculated at 61 detectors and the localization racy of 9 different realistic head finite element method ) models containing various gray and white matter uctivities to the results obtained using a FEM realistic model containing published baseline conductivity values. e models containing altered conductivity values, the gray white matter were varied, one at a time, between 10% and of their baseline values and then varied simultaneously. ough changes in conductivity values for gray and for white er individually altered the calculated magnetic fields and ce localization accuracy only slightly, altering both gray white matter conductivities simultaneously caused ficant discrepancies in calculated results compared to the el with the baseline conductivity values. This study ests that accurate gray and white matter uctivities may be important for MEG source lization in human brain.