Small Animal Biomagnetism Applications

The functioning of the human brain, nervous system and heart is based on the conduction of electrical signals. These electrical signals also create magnetic fields which extend outside the human body. Highly sensitive magnetometers, such as superconducting quantum interference device magnetometers or optically pumped magnetometers, placed outside the human body can detect these biomagnetic fields and provide non-invasive measurements of e.g. brain activity, nerve impulses, and cardiac activity. Animal models are used widely in medical research, including for disease diagnostics and for drugs testing. We review the topic of biomagnetic recordings on animal models using optically pumped magnetometers, and present our experiments on detecting nerve impulses in the frog sciatic nerve and the heart beat in an isolated guinea pig heart.