Reliability and signal comparison of OPM-MEG, fMRI & iEEG in a repeated movie viewing paradigm

Optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) offer a promising advancement in noninvasive neuroimaging via magnetoencephalography (MEG), but establishing their reliability and comparability to existing methods remains an ongoing endeavor. Here, we evaluated OPM recordings by assessing their test-retest reliability and comparing them to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and intracranial electroencephalography (iEEG) recordings in a repeated movie viewing paradigm. In 7 frequency bands ( δ : 0.5–4 Hz, θ : 4–8 Hz, α : 8–12 Hz, β : 12–28 Hz, γ 1 : 28–46 Hz, γ 2 : 55–70 Hz, and HF: 64–116 Hz) we quantified the signal consistency (1) within individuals, (2) across subjects, and (3) across modalities. OPM exhibited widespread reliability, particularly in lower frequency bands; spatial patterns resembled those of fMRI and iEEG in visual and auditory regions. Cross-modal analyses revealed robust OPM-fMRI correspondence, including inverse correlations at low frequencies and positive correlations at higher frequencies, consistent with known relationships between oscillatory power and BOLD responses. Comparisons of signal-to-noise (SNR) estimates further revealed that in some regions, the SNR of cross-modal alignment exceeded within-modality reliability, suggesting that bridging between modalities can sometimes enhance SNR by attenuating reliably shared noise. Our findings demonstrate that OPM consistently captures stimulus-locked neural dynamics that converge with established modalities.