The Center has been granted with a new MEG system in this call, with the grant code EQC2021-007677-P, and it will be installed during the first quarter of 2023. We want to thank the Spanish Ministry of Science for its trust on us.

We will leave this page online both for archival purposes and as a way to thank both those high-level scientists supporting us, listed at the bottom of this page, and the Spanish the Ministry of Science. Thanks to them, the Center will continue generating high level science in the area of neurosciences.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is a functional neuroimaging technique capable of directly measuring the subtle magnetic fields (10^-15 Tesla) derived from the electric currents taking place in the brain during any human activity, with a high spatial resolution and in real time. This equipment consists of 306 sensors (204 planar gradiometers and 102 magnetometers) that cover the cranial convexity, registering the electrophysiological activity of the brain with superior resolution in both time and frequency. MEG is a completely non-invasive and innocuous technique for human beings, just registering the electrophysiological activity that the brain naturally emits.

This singular equipment is installed in the most important universities, hospitals, and research centers across the Globe, and it is a crucial tool in disentangling the organization of brain functional networks. Furthermore, in addition to its fascinating research applications, MEG is also used to identify characteristic neurophysiological alterations in different neurological and psychiatric disorders. Specifically, MEG is approved for clinical use in epilepsy patients and for performing the pre-surgical functional mapping in patients in need of partial brain resections due to lesions in their brain tissue.

The team of researchers behind the LNCyC has been managing this type of equipment for more than 20 years, it is the more experienced in Spain (with experience in 2 different MEG systems) and has gained a first-level international reputation. The current MEG equipment installed in Madrid has surpassed its useful-life period and it is technologically obsolete. The supplying company does not offer technical support since 2019, and we estimate that the system will not be able to properly function beyond the year 2022.

The activities related to research and education of next-generation researchers, the synergies across Spanish laboratories and the prestigious international collaborations, and the clinical activities that drastically improve the outcome of brain surgery that have been developing thanks to this technology, all of them depend on the proper functioning of the equipment. An abrupt stop in this service due to a failure beyond repair of the machine that would prevent a smooth and planned transition between the current equipment and the new one, would imply important issues and delays in all the activities in this service, affecting all users (from students to patients). Hence, the acquisition of a new MEG equipment it is of utmost importance, since this would guarantee the continuation of the usual scientific and clinical services, promoting the advance of Spanish scientific communities related to the neuroscience, neurology, neurosurgery and psychiatric fields.

Because of this, the LNCyC has decided to apply for the current call for grants aimed to fund the acquisition and renewal of scientific infrastructure (Infraestructuras Científicas y Técnicas Singulares (ICTS)) by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación in the year 2021. Our proposal includes the renovation of our system, already obsolete, and its substitution by the new model of the same company. This will warranty the continuity of the work in the laboratory for an estimated period of 15 years, also allowing for the continuation of the current projects, as both systems are completely compatible, and their data fully comparable.

Letters of support from the international scientific community

During the elaboration of the aforementioned proposal, some of our collaborators have decided to publicly show their support and their alignment with the LNCyC in the needs presented in it:

Dr. Richard Henson, Medical Research Council University of Cambridge, UK (PDF).

Dr. Ira Haraldsen, Oslo University Hospital, Norway (PDF).

Dr. Ernesto Pereda, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain (PDF).

The C3N also offers a clinical service for patients who may benefit from the information provided by MEG recordings. This service is dispensed on the request of a clinician and includes an MEG scan and a medical report by a clinical neurophysiologist.

The fee for this medical service is 700€ per scan.

The C3N houses a 306 channel Elekta Neuromag® Vector View MEG system, a unique infrastructure of public nature accesible to other members of the scientific community and society. Following the submission guidelines for each option, both research services and clinical services can be requested.

If you are interested on doing your electrophysiology experiment with us, please check out the guidelines for submission and public fees below:

Relevant information for participants of the Ageing Projects carried out from 2010 to 2015 (Project PSI2009-14415-C03-01 and Project PSI2012-38375-C01-01).

From 2010 to 2015, the Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience carried out two research projects, focused on normal and pathological ageing, named “Multidisciplinary approach to early diagnostic of Alzheimer’s disease: neurofunctional connectivity, neuropsychology and genetic profiles” and “Understanding memory complains: an approach from genetics, neuropsychology and anatomic-functional connectivity”.
In 2021, the Laboratory entered as a partner in the multicenter project AI-Mind, funded by the European Union. The AI-Mind project aims to predict the conversion from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s- dementia. The Laboratory plans to use the data obtained in the above-mentioned projects in order to define biomarkers that may allow to predict the conversion risk of new patients. These data will be pseudonymized to fulfill the guarantees defined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Specifically, the use of the data is regulated by the article 9, section 2, letter g of the GDPR. In accordance with the seventeenth additional disposition of the “Ley Orgánica 3/2018, de 5 de diciembre, de Protección de Datos Personales y garantía de los derechos digitales”, it is lawful the reuse of personal data with research purposes in health and biomedical fields when, once obtained the informed consent the first time for a particular purpose, the data is reused for goals and research related to the field of study of the original project.

Therefore, in accordance with the article 13 of the GDPR, the Laboratory publicly announces the reuse of this data with the goal previously mentioned. Specifically, the Laboratory lets the participants know that:

• The participants can exercise their right of access, modification, or cancelation by contacting the data controller, Fernando Maestú (fmaestuu@ucm.es).
• The participants can also contact the Data Protection Officer of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid using the email dpd@ucm.es.
• After the pseudonymization, the data will be transferred to Oslo (Norway) fulfilling the guarantees imposed by the GDPR. The data will be pseudonymized with a technical and functional separation between the research team and the people responsible of the pseudonymization, adopting particular security measures to avoid the reidentification by the team in Oslo and the access of non-authorized parties.
• The use of the data ends with the project deadline, i.e., 28 of February of 2026.
• The participants can revoke their consent at any moment by contacting the data controller without affecting the use of the data previous to the revocation, when their revocation does not refer to the results of the investigation.
• The Ethic Commission has conferred a favorable report on the project.

Finally, the Laboratory would like to thank again all the participants, whose willingness to help is the basis of our work and it is vital for the progress of the scientific knowledge.

Virtual Brain Cloud (826421) is a project related to the research topic “neurodegenerative diseases and early biomarkers”, carried out by the Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience Laboratory with other important European Institutions.

It is the intention of the Laboratory to use within the framework of this project a part of the health data collected during the following two projects, carried out during the years 2009-2015:
– “Aproximación multidisciplinaria al diagnóstico precoz de la enfermedad de Alzheimer: conectividad neurofuncional, neuropsicología y perfiles genéticos” (PSI2009-14415-C03-01);
– “Entendiendo las quejas de memoria en el envejecimiento: una aproximación desde la genética, la neuropsicología y la conectividad anatomo-funcional” (PSI2012-38375-C03-01).

The data will be used in accordance with the personal data protection measures imposed by European and national regulations (GDPR and LOPDGDD):
– Pseudonymization and defacing: identification features are not included in the processed health data (neither the subject’s name, nor her facial features);
– Access to data by researchers requires electronic authentication of the same, and the data transfers are automatically mapped and saved in an electronic record.

In accordance with the seventeenth additional provision of Spanish Organic Law 3/2018, of December 5, (protection of personal data and guarantee of digital rights), the use of pseudonymised personal data for health and, in particular, biomedical research purposes is considered lawful. The use of pseudonymised personal data for public health and biomedical research purposes will require:
– A technical and functional separation between the research team and those who carry out the pseudonymization and keep the information that makes re-identification possible;
– That the pseudonymised data are only accessible to the research team when:
i) There is an express commitment to confidentiality and not to carry out any re-identification activity.
ii) Specific security measures are adopted to prevent re-identification and access by unauthorized third parties.
The data may be re-identified at its source, when, as a result of an investigation that uses pseudonymised data, the existence of a real and concrete danger to the safety or health of a person or group of people, or a serious threat is appreciated for your rights or is necessary to guarantee adequate sanitary assistance.
The multitude of participants and the difficulty (sometimes impossibility) of contact on our part with the participants make the effort to communicate with everyone not a viable option. In any case, for more information about the study we remain at your disposal at the following email: fmaestuu@ucm.es
Participants can exercise their rights of access, rectification or cancellation by contacting the person responsible for the treatment, Fernando Maestú (fmaestuu@ucm.es) or the Data Protection Officer of the UCM (dpd@ucm.es).

The use of the data will end in November 2022, when the Virtual Brain Cloud project ends. Any new information in this regard will be communicated through this page.

Thanks again for your participation.
The Laboratory of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience.