Functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based prefrontal cortex oxygenation during working memory tasks in sickle cell disease

John Sunwoo; Payal Shah; Wanwara Thuptimdang; Maha Khaleel; Patjanaporn Chalacheva; Roberta M Kato; Thomas D Coates; Michael C K Khoo

doi:10.1117/1.NPh.10.4.045004

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based prefrontal cortex oxygenation during working memory tasks in sickle cell disease

Neurophotonics. 2023 Oct;10(4):045004. doi: 10.1117/1.NPh.10.4.045004. Epub 2023 Oct 17.

Authors

John Sunwoo^{1

2}, Payal Shah³, Wanwara Thuptimdang^{1

4}, Maha Khaleel³, Patjanaporn Chalacheva^{1

5}, Roberta M Kato⁶, Thomas D Coates³, Michael C K Khoo¹

Affiliations

¹ University of Southern California, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Los Angeles, California, United States.
² Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
³ Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Hematology Section of Children's Center for Cancer, Blood Disease and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Los Angeles, California, United States.
⁴ Prince of Songkla University, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand.
⁵ Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
⁶ Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Division of Pediatric Pulmonology, Los Angeles, California, United States.

Abstract

Significance: Sickle cell disease (SCD), characterized by painful vaso-occlusive crises, is associated with cognitive decline. However, objective quantification of cognitive decline in SCD remains a challenge, and the associated hemodynamics are unknown.

Aim: To address this, we utilized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure prefrontal cortex (PFC) oxygenation responses to $N$ -back working memory tasks in SCD patients and compared them with healthy controls.

Approach: We quantified the PFC oxygenation rate as an index of cognitive activity in each group and compared them. In half of the participants, a Stroop test was administered before they started $N$ -back to elevate their baseline stress level.

Results: In SCD compared to healthy controls, we found that (1) under a high baseline stress level, there were significantly greater oxygenation responses during the 2-back task, further elevated with histories of stroke; (2) there was a marginally slower $N$ -back response time, and it was even slower with a history of stroke; and (3) the task accuracy was not different.

Conclusions: Additional requirements for processing time, PFC resources, and PFC oxygenation in SCD patients offer an important basis for understanding their cognitive decline and highlight the potential of fNIRS for evaluating cognitive functions.

Keywords: N-back working memory tasks; cognitive decline; functional near-infrared spectroscopy; prefrontal cortex; sickle cell disease; stroke.

Abstract

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