Magnetoencephalography Research Committee (MEGRC)

MANDATE

The mandate of the MEGRC is to :

1. Review all MEG-related research proposals for scientific validity, safety, and relevance to the neuroscientific mission of The Neuro. Approval from the MEGRC is required by The Neuro Research Ethics Committee for all proposals involving MEG.
2. Advise the MEG Director of Research on practical aspects of the MEG research operation: e.g., equipment, time scheduling, access procedures, defining qualified users, etc.

Members of the MEGRC

MEG Research Scanning Policies

Detailed information regarding MEG access, scanning and billing policies for research are detailed in a separate document accessible here: http://mni-bic.mcgill.ca/

Meetings of the MEG Research Committee

The MEG Research Committee meets on a monthly basis, the FIRST MONDAY of each month. Investigators wishing to submit protocols to the committee should prepare a single pdf file of the documents in the correct order (protocol, consent form, declaration of consent, public advertisement, MRI questionnaire if needed) and send the file to megrc [at] bic.mni.mcgill.ca 10 working days prior to the date of the meeting (i.e., at the latest, on the Monday 2 weeks before the committee meeting).

The MEGRC will review protocols in the same format as required by an APPLICATION FOR INITIAL REVIEW FOR SUBMISSION to the Research Ethics Board (REB). Specific form templates for MEG studies are available below. Any forms appropriate to other Ethics Committees (McGill IRB, Douglas IRB, etc.) will be accepted for review.

• Please do not change the date that appears in the bottom right-hand corner of the form. All questions on the form must be answered.
• It is imperative that an investigator from The Neuro/H is associated with the proposed study, particularly for studies originating from outside the The Neuro/H. However, it is not required that this individual is the Principal Investigator.
• Each submission must contain an English and a French version of a CONSENT FORM, a DECLARATION OF CONSENT (forms available below) and – if the MEG data analysis requires the individual anatomical scan of subjects -- an MRI QUESTIONNAIRE should also be featured.
• Please note that all multi-modality protocols involving MRI (beyond a basic anatomical scan) and/or PET must be submitted in parallel to the respective Research Committees, since this committee will state only the MEG party of the proposals.
• You are invited to contribute with your data to the Montreal MEG repository (M2R). The databank policy is detailed in a separate document below. If you are willing to contribute to the database, please make sure to have the corresponding forms ( MEG - database consent – EN and MEG - database consent – FR) attached to your submission. A repository is a large collection of anonymized data and/or samples put together and made available to the academic community. The goal of the M2R is to collect data from a large amount of participants to construct a repository of spontaneous brain activity and brain responses to basic stimulation. The data collected may help researchers in the future to gain a better understanding of those mechanisms, which may impact the discovery of new markers of neurological diseases or psychiatric conditions.

At the top of each page of the consent form, please include the title of the protocol and the site at which the study will be performed. Also indicate at the bottom right-hand corner of each page, the version date of the consent form, i.e. the date when the form was prepared. Note that projects with standard anatomical MR scans of participants are not required to obtain approval from The Neuro's MRI Research Committee.

Following the meeting of the MEG Research Committee, the Principal Investigator will receive a letter with the Committee’s decision and any recommendations, should changes be required. The investigator can then proceed to seek for approval by the appropriate Research Ethics Board (The Neuro's or from his/her home institution) and include the review letter from the MEG Research Committee.

Useful Links

MEG Research Facility at the The Neuro; includes generic descriptions of the MEG facility and basic scanning procedures.

MEG Research Scanning Policies

The Neuro's Research Ethics Board

A non-technical introduction to MEG

The Canada MEG Consortium initiative