64. Gareth Barnes: MEG, OPM-MEG and the beauty of tinkering

11/17/22 • 85 min

Gareth Barnes is a professor at University College London, where he is Head of Magnetoencephalography. We talk about how Gareth randomly stumbled into working on MEG, what MEG is, and some of his recent projects, including the exciting new generation of MEG scanners: OPM-MEG.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes appear roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:00:03: How I found out about Gareth's work
0:02:31: What is MEG?
0:07:04: Flexible headcasts for MEG
0:19:49: How Gareth accidentally started working on MEG (after writing fiction in France)
0:28:46: The early days of MEG at Aston University (starting with a single channel)
0:40:58: The new generation of MEG: Optically pumped magnetometers (OPM-MEG)
1:13:33: Mouth MEG and measuring hippocampus with MEG
1:21:06: The relationship between methods development and discovery in basic science
Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Gareth's links

Website: https://geni.us/barnes-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/barnes-scholar

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

Links
MEG in the UK: https://meguk.ac.uk/
MEG image: https://biomaglaboratory.fi/wp-content/themes/biomagille/images/meg_image_20210422b.jpg
Cerca MEG: https://www.cercamagnetics.com/
Fieldline MEG: https://fieldlineinc.com/
Young Epilepsy: https://www.youngepilepsy.org.uk/
Sphenoidal electrodes: https://www.epilepsybehavior.com/article/S1525-5050(03)00023-4/fulltext
References
Boto, ... & Brookes (2018). Moving magnetoencephalography towards real-world applications with a wearable system. Nature.
Boto, ... & Brookes (2019). Wearable neuroimaging: Combining and contrasting magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography. NeuroImage.
Hill, ... & Brookes (2019). A tool for functional brain imaging with lifespan compliance. Nature Communications.
Meyer, ... & Barnes (2017). Flexible head-casts for high spatial precision MEG. Journal of neuroscience methods.
Sander, ... & Knappe (2012). Magnetoencephalography with a chip-scale atomic magnetometer. Biomedical optics express.
Seymour, ... & Maguire (2021). Using OPMs to measure neural activity in standing, mobile participants. NeuroImage.
Stangl, ... & Suthana (2021). Boundary-anchored neural mechanisms of location-encoding for self and others. Nature.
Tierney, ... & Barnes (2019). Optically pumped magnetometers: From quantum origins to multi-channel magnetoencephalography. NeuroImage.
Tierney, ... & Barnes (2021). Mouth magnetoencephalography: A unique perspective on the human hippocampus. NeuroImage.
Vivekananda, ... & Walker (2020). Optically pumped magnetoencephalography in epilepsy. Annals of clinical and translational neurology.

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Gareth's links

Website: https://geni.us/barnes-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/barnes-scholar

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

Previous Episode

63. Adeyemi Adetula: ManyLabs Africa, psychology should generalise from Africa, and multicultural collaborations

Adeyemi Adetula is a PhD student at the University of Grenoble, where he is leading the ManyLabs Africa project. In this conversation, we talk about that project, his recent commentary 'Psychology should generalize from - not just to - Africa', how Western researchers can best collaborate with African researchers, and much more.
Timestamps
0:00:05: How Adeyemi went from psychology student in Nigeria to PhD student in France
0:13:27: ManyLabs Africa
0:18:54: Synergy between the Credibility Revolution and research development in Africa
0:25:26: How and why Adeyemi crowdfunded his PhD
0:36:42: Psychology should generalize from - not just to - Africa
0:54:47: How can Western researchers test their theories in more diverse samples?
1:03:47: Pounded yam with Egusi soup and bushmeat
Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Adeyemi's links

Google Scholar: https://geni.us/adetula-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/adetula-twt

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

References and links
ManyLabs Africa: https://osf.io/vh6td/
Collaborative Replications and Education Project: https://www.crep-psych.org/
CREP Africa: https://osf.io/kvhzg/
Sci-Hub: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub
Adeyemi's GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-african-scholar-in-financial-distress
Adeyemi's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/support_adeyemi_adetula_dream
Adetula, ... IJzerman (2022). Psychology should generalize from—not just to—Africa. Nat Rev Psych.
Adetula, ... IJzerman (2021). Synergy Between the Credibility Revolution and Human Development in Africa. AfricArXive.
Adetula, ... IJzerman, H. (2021). The Evaluation of Harm and Purity Transgressions in Africans: A Paradigmatic Replication of Rottman and Young (2019). AfricArXive
Klein, ... Nosek (2014). Investigating variation in replicability: A “many labs” replication project. Soc Psych.
Rottman & Young (2019). Specks of dirt and tons of pain: Dosage distinguishes impurity from harm. Psych Sci.
The 5 shortlisted African papers for the ManyLabs Africa replication:
Bevan-Dye & Akpojivi (2016). South African Generation Y students’ self-disclosure on Facebook. South African J of Psych.
Kombo, S. (n.d.). Using behavioural informed communication to drive civic engagement. [Unpublished paper] https://busaracenter.org/case_studies/behaviorally-informed-communication-to-drive-civic-engagement/
Mgbokwere, Esienumoh & Uyana (2015). Perception and attitudes of parents towards teenage pregnancy in a rural community of Cross river state, Nigeria. Global J of Pure & Applied Sci.
Ojedokun (2015). Extramarital affair as correlate of reproductive health and home instability among couples in Ibadan, Nigeria. African J of Social Work.
Teye-Kwadjo, Kagee & Swart (2018). Condom use negotiation among high school adolescents in Ghana: The role of gender. South African J of Psych.

Next Episode

65. Adam Mastroianni: Conversational doorknobs, improv comedy, and a very dumb academic revolution

Adam Mastroianni is a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia Business School. In this conversation, we talk about his work on conversations, his Substack/blog, his article Things Could Be Better and why he chose to publish it this way, improv comedy, and much more.
BJKS Podcast is a podcast about neuroscience, psychology, and anything vaguely related, hosted by Benjamin James Kuper-Smith. In 2022, episodes will appear irregularly, roughly twice per month. You can find the podcast on all podcasting platforms (e.g., Spotify, Apple/Google Podcasts, etc.).
Timestamps
0:01:20: Did Adam fake having a girlfriend when he appeared on Come Dine With Me?
0:08:51: Adam's Substack called 'Experimental History'
0:10:51: Good conversations have lots of doorknobs
0:15:33: What can people learn from improv comedy?
0:23:10: Why did Adam start his Substack? / A discussion of academia, alternative ways of doing science, and the problems with academic publishing
1:12:26: Start discussing Adam's paper 'Do conversations end when people want them to?'
1:27:28: What makes for a good conversation?
1:29:59: Some words of advice from Adam
Podcast links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-pod
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-pod-twt

Adam's links

Website: https://geni.us/mastroianni-web
Substack: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/mastroianni-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/mastroianni-twt

Ben's links

Website: https://geni.us/bjks-web
Google Scholar: https://geni.us/bjks-scholar
Twitter: https://geni.us/bjks-twt

Links
Rowan Atkinson saying words in a funny way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UhHrtKx8-s
Substack article on conversational doorknobs: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/good-conversations-have-lots-of-doorknobs
https://slimemoldtimemold.com/2022/02/10/the-scientific-virtues/
Episode with Joe Hilgard about scientific fraud: https://geni.us/bjks-hilgard
Get me off your mailing list: https://www.vox.com/2014/11/21/7259207/scientific-paper-scam
Dan Quintana's YouTube with Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/@dsquintana
Adam's Rhodes speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H68w3543lk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html
References
Gilbert (2009). Stumbling on happiness.
Mastroianni, Gilbert, Cooney, & Wilson (2021). Do conversations end when people want them to? PNAS.
Mastroianni, AM & Ludwin-Peery, EJ. (2022). Things could be better. https://psyarxiv.com/2uxwk
Schwartz (2008). The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Journal of Cell Science.

BJKS Podcast - 64. Gareth Barnes: MEG, OPM-MEG and the beauty of tinkering

Transcript

(This is an automated transcript that contains many errors)
Benjamin James Kuper-Smith: [00:00:00] Yeah, I thought somewhat unusually. I'll start with a, with a small or short story about how kind of I found out about some of the work you're doing and, um, I think that will, Yeah, it relates to quite a few different things that I guess we'll be talking about today. So I did my, uh, masters at, so I did the dual masters, that's one year at UCO and WA in Paris, and the dual m