On the exterior magnetic field and silent sources in magnetoencephalography

Two main results are included in this paper. The first one deals with the leading asymptotic term of the magnetic field outside any conductive medium. In accord with physical reality, it is proved mathematically that the leading approximation is a quadrupole term which means that the conductive brain tissue weakens the intensity of the magnetic field outside the head. The second one concerns the orientation of the silent sources when the geometry of the brain model is not a sphere but an ellipsoid which provides the best possible mathematical approximation of the human brain. It is shown that what characterizes a dipole source as “silent” is not the collinearity of the dipole moment with its position vector, but the fact that the dipole moment lives in the Gaussian image space at the point where the position vector meets the surface of the ellipsoid. The appropriate representation for the spheroidal case is also included.