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8. Jan. 2026
The brain never sleeps and is constantly active. Scientists can measure this activity, but they are still far from fully decoding it. Thanks to electroencephalography (EEG) – a method that records neural brain activity using electrodes placed on the scalp – we know that brain activity is not entirely continuous. EEG signals consist of successive short segments known as microstates. Each microstate reflects a relatively stable configuration of brain activity, which then very rapidly changes into another configuration – another microstate – roughly every 50 to 60 milliseconds.
At CEITEC Masaryk University (MUNI), microstates are studied by Radek Mareček together with colleagues from the Multimodal and Functional Imaging Laboratory (MAFIL). To read brain activity more precisely, they combine EEG with magnetic resonance imaging to investigate what microstates actually reflect in the brain. This is fundamental research whose practical applications are still a long way off, but which may one day provide crucial insights into how the human brain functions.
Why do scientists want to uncover the nature of microstates?
Each segment of a brain activity graph represents a brief, stable moment – a kind of “snapshot” of what is happening in the brain at a given time. When these snapshots are arranged in sequence, they form a dynamic map of thinking, perception, and emotions. Scientists therefore seek to understand what individual microstates mean and how they relate to one another, in order to gain deeper insight into brain function and its responses to different stimuli.
Why is it beneficial to monitor the brain using both EEG and magnetic resonance imaging at the same time?
EEG captures when microstates occur, while functional magnetic resonance imaging shows where in the brain they take place. At CEITEC MUNI, researchers combine these two methods and work on ways to remove technical noise from the data, allowing them to better understand what microstates represent from a physiological perspective.
Why might microstates one day become a useful tool for clinicians?
Microstates are a natural part of brain activity, but it is assumed that their patterns may differ in people with Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, schizophrenia, or similar conditions. By comparing these differences, scientists could in the future contribute to earlier diagnosis or a better understanding of such disorders – provided that microstates are shown to carry clinically relevant information.
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