Characterizing the early development of the human brain is critical from both fundamental and clinical perspectives. However, existing neuroimaging techniques are either not well suited to infants or have limited spatial or temporal resolution. The advent of optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) has revolutionized magnetoencephalography (MEG) by enabling wearable and thus more naturalistic recordings while maintaining excellent sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolution. Nevertheless, its adaptation to studying neural activity in infancy poses several challenges. In this work, we present an original close-to-scalp OPM-MEG setup that successfully recorded brain responses to sounds in newborns. We exposed 1-month-old infants to continuous streams of tones and observed significant evoked responses, which peaked ~250 ms poststimulus at bilateral auditory cortices. When tones were presented at a steady fixed pace with an oddball tone every fourth tone, significant neural responses were found both at the frequency of the standard tones (3 Hz) and of the oddball tones (0.75 Hz). The latter reflects the ability of the newborn brain to detect auditory change and synchronize to regular auditory patterns. Additional analyses support the added value of triaxial OPMs to increase the number of channels on small heads. Finally, OPM-MEG responses were validated with those obtained from the same participants using an adult-sized cryogenic MEG. This study demonstrates the applicability of OPM-MEG to study early postnatal periods; a crucial step towards future OPM investigations of typical and pathological early brain development.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) measures brain function via assessment of magnetic fields generated by neural currents. Conventional MEG uses superconducting sensors, which place significant limitations on performance, practicality, and deployment; however, the field has been revolutionised in recent years by the introduction of optically-pumped magnetometers (OPMs). OPMs enable measurement of the MEG signal without cryogenics, and consequently the conception of “OPM-MEG” systems which ostensibly allow increased sensitivity and resolution, lifespan compliance, free subject movement, and lower cost. However, OPM-MEG is in its infancy with existing limitations on both sensor and system design. Here, we report a new OPM-MEG design with miniaturised and integrated electronic control, a high level of portability, and improved sensor dynamic range. We show that this system produces equivalent measures compared with an established OPM-MEG instrument; specifically, when measuring task-induced beta-band, gamma-band, and evoked neuro-electrical responses, source localisations from the two systems were comparable and temporal correlation of measured brain responses was >0.7 at the individual level and >0.9 for groups. Using an electromagnetic phantom, we demonstrate improved dynamic range by running the system in background fields up to 8 nT. We show that the system is effective in gathering data during free movement (including a sitting-to-standing paradigm) and that it is compatible with simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG). Finally, we demonstrate portability by moving the system between two laboratories. Overall, our new system is shown to be a significant step forward for OPM-MEG and offers an attractive platform for next generation functional medical imaging.