Bundled-Optode Method in Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

PLoS One. 2016 Oct 27;11(10):e0165146. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0165146. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

In this paper, a theory for detection of the absolute concentrations of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) from hemodynamic responses using a bundled-optode configuration in functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is proposed. The proposed method is then applied to the identification of two fingers (i.e., little and thumb) during their flexion and extension. This experiment involves a continuous-wave-type dual-wavelength (760 and 830 nm) fNIRS and five healthy male subjects. The active brain locations of two finger movements are identified based on the analysis of the t- and p-values of the averaged HbOs, which are quite distinctive. Our experimental results, furthermore, revealed that the hemodynamic responses of two-finger movements are different: The mean, peak, and time-to-peak of little finger movements are higher than those of thumb movements. It is noteworthy that the developed method can be extended to 3-dimensional fNIRS imaging.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / metabolism*
  • Brain / physiology
  • Hemodynamics
  • Hemoglobins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Optical Devices*
  • Oxyhemoglobins / metabolism
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio
  • Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Hemoglobins
  • Oxyhemoglobins
  • deoxyhemoglobin

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Mid-Career Researcher Program (grant no. NRF-2014R1A2A1A10049727) and the Convergence Technology Development Program for Bionic Arm (grant no. 2016M3C1B2912986) through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning, Republic of Korea. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.