Brain plasticity for sensory and linguistic functions: a functional imaging study using magnetoencephalography with children and young adults.

In this report, the newest of the functional imaging methods, magnetoencephalography, is described, and its use in addressing the issue of brain reorganization for basic sensory and linguistic functions is documented in a series of 10 children and young adults. These patients presented with a wide variety of conditions, ranging from tumors and focal epilepsy to reading disability. In all cases, clear evidence of reorganization of the brain mechanisms of either somatosensory or linguistic functions or both was obtained, demonstrating the utility of magnetoencephalography in studying, completely noninvasively, the issue of plasticity in the developing brain.