The electrical characteristics of tissue yield valuable information for the early diagnosis of pathological changes. Magneto-acoustic tomography( MAT) is a novel functional imaging approach for imaging electrical conductivity. It combines the advantages of high spatial resolution of ultrasonic imaging and high contrast ratio of electrical impedance tomography. It has potential application value in the early tumor diagnosis and bioelectricity monitoring. The analysis and detection of the magneto acoustic signal have a key role in improving the contrast resolution,imaging resolution and reconstruction accuracy of the electrical conductivity image. In this paper,the amplitude,the waveform characteristics and the frequency characteristics of the magnetic sound signal are review ed by the theoretical research,simulation and testing experiments of the weak magneto-acoustic signal.