With his specialism in magnetoencephalography (MEG), Arjan Hillebrand wants to further explore how brain networks function and how they are disrupted in dementia, epilepsy, and brain tumors. Additionally, he wants to recognize those disrupted networks earlier and more reliable than in current situations. During his inaugural lecture on April 24, 2026, Arjan Hillebrand will discuss this as the newly appointed Professor of Magnetoencephalography at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

From measurement to knowledge

Our brains communicate via small electrical currents that generate magnetic fields. Using sensitive sensors, Hillebrand and his team measure these signals outside the head with MEG and thus map how brain areas work together. But can such measurements be translated into better diagnostics? Can they predict how a disease will develop, or which patient is at increased risk? And if networks become disrupted, can they be adjusted effectively? Hillebrand and his research group want to use magnetism to unravel disrupted brain networks - so that measurement truly leads to knowledge, and knowledge to action.

The team of Hillebrand has recently shown that MEG-based network features can generate diagnostic profiles across dementia types, capturing uncertainty and overlap between disorders. This probabilistic classification is of practical utility in the Memory clinic.

Wearable brain scanner to advance clinical care

BRAINCARE is one of the many projects Hillebrand works on. Within this project, funded by NWO, Hillebrand and colleagues aim to develop a novel wearable sensor technology to enable non-invasive functional brain scanning with unprecedented sensitivity and spatial accuracy. As an exemplar application, the system they develop will be used to advance clinical care for patients with suspected epilepsy. With BRAINCARE, the researchers will demonstrate that epileptiform activity can be detected with greater sensitivity than with incumbent technology (EEG), enabling an early diagnosis after a first suspected seizure.

About Arjan Hillebrand
Arjan Hillebrand obtained his degree in applied physics from the University of Twente (The Netherlands). In 1996 he moved to Aston University in Birmingham (United Kingdom), where he received his PhD in 2000 that involved the development of new methodology for Magnetoencephalography (MEG), focussing on source reconstruction approaches. In 1999 he was appointed as a research fellow (tenured in 2002) to direct and support research with the newly installed whole-head MEG system at Aston University. In 2007 he became MEG systems manager, as well as the director of the MRes in Psychological Research Methods in 2008.

In 2008 he moved to the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), where he was employed as a Medical Physicist and Associate Professor (2019) to direct and support MEG research. He currently holds the chair of ‘Magnetoencephalography and Dynamical Brain Networks’ at the Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, where he focuses on the use of MEG to characterise functional brain networks in health and neurological disorders, with particular attention to epilepsy.

The inaugural lecture, titled ‘Measuring magnetism is understanding - Unravelling disrupted brain networks’, by Arjan Hillebrand, will take place today, April 24, 2026, at 15:45 in the Aula of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The lecture can be attend in person or followed online via the livestream.