ScienceAugust 19, 2026
magnetoencephalography
mag-NEE-toh-en-SEF-uh-LOG-ruh-fee
Definition
A non-invasive medical imaging technique used to map brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain.
Etymology
The word is a hybrid construction derived from the Latin 'magnes' (magnet) and the Greek roots 'enkephalos' (brain) and 'graphein' (to write/record).
In the news
The article mentions this technology as one of the methods researchers used to monitor brain responses while subjects viewed images to study the neural mechanisms of pareidolia.
The human brain is so desperate to find patterns that it will reliably see faces in clouds, hear words in static, and detect meaning in pure randomness, and there's a name for the glitch that makes it happen.
Read the full article ↗ScienceBlog.com