By: Grace Huff
University of Florida Health is using magnetoencephalography (MEG) technology to redefine treatment and evaluation of brain tumors. MEG scanners are rare, with only about 200 worldwide, roughly 30 in the United States and only two in Florida.
Located in the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, UF Health is home to the only academic MEG center in the state. In the UF Health MEG laboratory’s first year of operation, more than 100 clinical scans have been completed, a milestone that reflects the technology’s rapid adoption.
MEG offers an unmatched capability: the ability to map brain activity in three dimensions on a millisecond-by-millisecond basis. For patients with brain tumors in or near the eloquent cortex, MEG provides critical information about how cancer interacts with the functional networks underlying speech, movement, sensation, vision and other cognitive functions. Traditional imaging, MRI, PET and CT, can define tumor boundaries, vascular features and metabolic behavior, but they can’t show whether the eloquent cortex is preserved, displaced or near the tumor. MEG fills this gap.
MEG functional maps are co-registered with MRI and integrated directly into the neurosurgical navigation system. MEG does not define oncologic margins, but it represents “no-go” boundaries, areas where resection would produce unwanted deficits. For neurosurgeons like UF Health’s Maryam Rahman, M.D., a nationally recognized brain tumor surgeon, this information can change the entire surgical plan.
“If the MEG shows language, motor or somatosensory areas involved with the tumor, it helps us decide when to perform surgery with awake brain mapping and what areas to pay special attention to,” Rahman said.
Early MEG assessment is recommended for referring physicians in cases where:
- Tumors abut or infiltrate the eloquent cortex
- Tumor-related epilepsy is present
- fMRI results are inconclusive
- Language dominance and network organization are uncertain
What distinguishes UF’s MEG program is not the scanner itself, but the academic ecosystem that supports its operation. The MEG lab, embedded in the Fixel Institute’s comprehensive neuroimaging center, enables integration of MEG data with structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, fMRI, PET and neuropsychological assessments.
“Our distinct advantage lies not in the MEG scanner itself, but in how we integrate it with our clinical and research applications within a comprehensive neuroimaging center at Fixel Institute,” said Abbas Babajani-Feremi, Ph.D., director of the UF Health MEG Lab. “This integration, coupled with our academic research environment, enables multidisciplinary collaboration and significantly enhances the capabilities of our MEG scanner.”
MEG is highly valuable when fMRI is inconclusive or limited by neurovascular uncoupling, which can lead to false-negative BOLD signals near tumors. In these cases, MEG can reveal preserved or reorganized eloquent cortex that MRI and fMRI fail to detect. MEG also plays a significant role in evaluating tumor-related epilepsy, particularly in patients with low-grade or infiltrative gliomas.
The program drives major research initiatives across the University of Florida. Detailed MEG data supports funded studies involving Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia and dystonia, enabling researchers to study neural networks with a level of granularity unavailable in other imaging modalities.
“The MEG scanner plays a critical role in ongoing research initiatives by providing detailed data on brain function in various neurological conditions,” Babajani-Feremi said. “It can facilitate the development of new diagnostic or therapeutic approaches, ultimately contributing to the advancement of neuroscience.”
The Preston J. Wells Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy at UF integrates MEG into surgical planning, comprehensive neuro-oncology services and first-in-human clinical trial programs, making it a destination for complex gliomas and metastases.
Looking ahead, both experts expect MEG in neuro-oncology to evolve toward sophisticated connectivity mapping, network-level surgical planning and AI-assisted interpretation. These innovations will deepen understanding of how tumors disrupt communication within language, motor, default mode and attentional networks. Emerging wearable or optically pumped magnetometer systems may further expand MEG’s reach, especially for children or patients unable to remain still during scans.
“By combining MEG with advanced imaging, we can move from simply removing a tumor to delivering truly personalized, function-guided surgery that balances oncologic control with preservation of language, motor and cognitive networks,” said Babajani-Feremi.