Oscillator decomposition of infant fNIRS data

PLoS Comput Biol. 2022 Mar 24;18(3):e1009985. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009985. eCollection 2022 Mar.

Abstract

The functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) can detect hemodynamic responses in the brain and the data consist of bivariate time series of oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (deoxy-Hb) on each channel. In this study, we investigate oscillatory changes in infant fNIRS signals by using the oscillator decompisition method (OSC-DECOMP), which is a statistical method for extracting oscillators from time series data based on Gaussian linear state space models. OSC-DECOMP provides a natural decomposition of fNIRS data into oscillation components in a data-driven manner and does not require the arbitrary selection of band-pass filters. We analyzed 18-ch fNIRS data (3 minutes) acquired from 21 sleeping 3-month-old infants. Five to seven oscillators were extracted on most channels, and their frequency distribution had three peaks in the vicinity of 0.01-0.1 Hz, 1.6-2.4 Hz and 3.6-4.4 Hz. The first peak was considered to reflect hemodynamic changes in response to the brain activity, and the phase difference between oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb for the associated oscillators was at approximately 230 degrees. The second peak was attributed to cardiac pulse waves and mirroring noise. Although these oscillators have close frequencies, OSC-DECOMP can separate them through estimating their different projection patterns on oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb. The third peak was regarded as the harmonic of the second peak. By comparing the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) of two state space models, we determined that the time series of oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb on each channel originate from common oscillatory activity. We also utilized the result of OSC-DECOMP to investigate the frequency-specific functional connectivity. Whereas the brain oscillator exhibited functional connectivity, the pulse waves and mirroring noise oscillators showed spatially homogeneous and independent changes. OSC-DECOMP is a promising tool for data-driven extraction of oscillation components from biological time series data.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Brain / metabolism
  • Brain Mapping / methods
  • Hemoglobins* / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Oxyhemoglobins / metabolism
  • Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared* / methods

Substances

  • Hemoglobins
  • Oxyhemoglobins

Grants and funding

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 19K20220 and JST Moonshot Grant Number JPMJMS2024 to TM, JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H06525 to FH, JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 19H01086 and 20K20601 to GT and JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H06533 and AMED Grant Numbers JP21dm0207001 and JP21dm0307009 to FK. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.