Fetal Magnetoencephalography and Magnetocardiography

Biomagnetometers based on SQUID technology are currently still the only available technology to assess simultaneously fetal brain and heart development in utero with a high temporal resolution. This high temporal resolution is essential for deciphering the neural processes underlying higher order processing in fetal life. This is crucial to increase our understanding of developmental trajectories especially related to the concept of 'Developmental Origin of Health and Disease'. During the development of healthy fetuses we were able to demonstrate that they can show long-term memory-associated responses during a local-global paradigm during the last trimester. Data of this study also provided evidence that neural complexity unexpectedly decreases during the last trimester also showing sex specific differences. A possible explanation of this finding is that the analysis was related to event related responses and not spontaneous activity. The understanding of detours of developmental trajectories in fetuses affected by different stressors including psychological, metabolic and/or environmental stressors are necessary to also provide possible intervention possibilities. Metabolic stressors, e.g maternal Gestational Diabetes or psychological stress affect the developmental trajectory of fetal brain and heart development. First evidence also indicate that these stressors have to be taken into account in the preconceptional state. To further advance research in this direction new cost-efficient recording possibilities, e.g. optical pumped magnetometers are crucial and we will discuss the current status in the field.