Purpose of the study: the aim of this study was to synthesize PFC fNIRS outcomes on the effects of cognitive tasks compared to resting/baseline tasks in healthy adults from studies utilizing a pre/post design.
Material and methods: original research studies were searched from seven databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL, CINAHL, SCOPUS, PEDro and PubMed). Subsequently, two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts followed by full-text reviews to assess the studies' eligibility.
Results: eleven studies met the inclusion criteria and had data abstracted and quality assessed. Methodology varied considerably and yet cognitive tasks resulted in the ΔO2Hb increasing in 8 of the 11 and ΔHHb decreasing in 8 of 8 studies that reported this outcome. The cognitive tasks from 10 of the 11 studies were classified as "Working Memory" and "Verbal Fluency Tasks".
Conclusions: although, the data comparison was challenging provided the heterogeneity in methodology, the results across studies were similar.
Keywords: Prefrontal cortex; cognitive task; healthy subjects; near infrared spectroscopy; oxyhemoglobins.