A wearable brain scanner for children with epilepsy needing surgery planning
Compares a new lightweight brain scanner with the usual one in children with epilepsy.
Plain-language title generated from the registry record
Registry title: OPM MEG in Pre-surgical Mapping for Patients With Epilepsy
Key facts
- Where
- Birmingham, United KingdomSee the site
Could this be for you?
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 6 and 15 years old?
Source: NCT07378397, who can take part
Where in United Kingdom
- Aston UniversityBirmingham, United KingdomNo longer taking part
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Trial details
- Who runs it
- Aston University
- Trial code
- NCT07378397
- Record updated
- 30 January 2026
- Original description
Magnetoencephalography, or "MEG", is a brain-scanning method which has been available for many years. It is used in the UK and worldwide to help patients with epilepsy, who need surgery to resolve their seizures. The MEG scan can help inform the surgeon about where to operate, by mapping the abnormal brain activity caused by epilepsy. During a traditional MEG recording, patients sit very still with their head in a rigid helmet which houses many tiny sensors. This can be uncomfortable, and there are additional problems if the patient is a child, because the helmet is often too big. It is not possible to record useful data from the very youngest children with a traditional MEG scanner.Read full original descriptionShow less
Evaluating Novel OPM-magnetoencephalography in Pre-surgical Mapping for Patients With Epilepsy
Magnetoencephalography, or "MEG", is a brain-scanning method which has been available for many years. It is used in the UK and worldwide to help patients with epilepsy, who need surgery to resolve their seizures. The MEG scan can help inform the surgeon about where to operate, by mapping the abnormal brain activity caused by epilepsy. During a traditional MEG recording, patients sit very still with their head in a rigid helmet which houses many tiny sensors. This can be uncomfortable, and there are additional problems if the patient is a child, because the helmet is often too big. It is not possible to record useful data from the very youngest children with a traditional MEG scanner.
But there is a new generation of MEG systems, called OPM-MEG, which employ lightweight sensors housed in a kind of hat. The hat can be appropriately sized for children, and the patient can move comfortably. The new systems are also more cost-effective to run. It is important to know whether the accepted clinical protocols for using MEG in planning epilepsy surgery can be directly transferred to OPM-MEG. It is also important to understand how the patient experience compares across systems.
In this project, 20 volunteer patients will be recruited from among those children already having routine pre-surgical MEG recordings Aston University. They will be invited to participate in an OPM-MEG recording in the same facility at Aston University, so that data from the new OPM-MEG device can be compared with the data from the old MEG scanner. Data analysis pipelines will be streamlined, and the accuracy of the results compared to determine whether the improved sensor arrangement for children in the OPM-MEG system leads to better localisation of epileptiform activity.
Inclusion: Patients who are capable of giving informed assent, and have a person with parental responsibility capable of giving informed consent on their behalf; Male or female; Patients between the age of 6-15 years; Patients and caregivers with English language skills that enable informed assent/consent.
Exclusion: Patients, or parent or caregiver, who do not assent or consent to participate in the research either on that day or later.
All patients referred to the Aston IHN MEG service from Birmingham Children's Hospital Children's Epilepsy Surgery Service, who are between the ages of 6 and 15, are eligible to take part in the study, until 20 patients have completed the study.