A Mini-Review on Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS): Where Do We Stand, and Where Should We Go?

Quaresima, Valentina; Ferrari, Marco

doi:10.3390/photonics6030087

Cited by 83 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 120 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, it permits populations to be investigated that are more likely to show head motion (e.g., neurological or psychiatric patients or infants) and situations that do not allow fMRI measurements (e.g., participants with ferromagnetic implants or claustrophobia). For recent reviews on the use of fNIRS in neuroscience see (Pinti et al, 2018b;Quaresima and Ferrari, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback – a systematic review and recommendations for best practice

Mehler¹,

Lührs²,

Thibault³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The effects of electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-neurofeedback on brain activation and behaviors have been studied extensively in the past. More recently, researchers have begun to investigate the effects of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback (fNIRS-neurofeedback). FNIRS is a functional neuroimaging technique based on brain hemodynamics, which is easy to use, portable, inexpensive, and has reduced sensitivity to movement artifacts.Method: We provide the first systematic review and database of fNIRS-neurofeedback studies, synthesizing findings from 22 peer-reviewed studies (including a total of N=441 participants; 337 healthy, 104 patients). We (1) give a comprehensive overview of how fNIRS-neurofeedback training protocols were implemented, (2) review the online signal-processing methods used, (3) evaluate the quality of studies using pre-set methodological and reporting quality criteria and also present statistical sensitivity/power analyses, (4) investigate the effectiveness of fNIRS-neurofeedback in modulating brain activation, and (5) review its effectiveness in changing behavior in healthy and pathological populations. Results and discussion: (1-2) Published studies are heterogeneous (e.g., neurofeedback targets, investigated populations, applied training protocols, and methods). (3) Large randomized controlled trials are still lacking. In view of the novelty of the field, the quality of the published studies is moderate. We identified room for improvement in reporting important information and statistical power to detect realistic effects. (4) Several studies show that people can regulate hemodynamic signals from cortical brain regions with fNIRS-neurofeedback and (5) these studies indicate the feasibility of modulating motor control and prefrontal brain functioning in healthy participants and ameliorating symptoms in clinical populations (stroke, ADHD, autism, and social anxiety). However, valid conclusions about specificity or potential clinical utility are premature. Conclusion: Due to the advantages of practicability and relatively low cost, fNIRS-neurofeedback might provide a suitable and powerful alternative to EEG and fMRI neurofeedback and has great potential for clinical translation of neurofeedback. Together with more rigorous research and reporting practices, further methodological improvements may lead to a more solid understanding of fNIRS-neurofeedback. Future research will benefit from exploiting the advantages of fNIRS, which offers unique opportunities for neurofeedback research.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback – a systematic review and recommendations for best practice

Mehler¹,

Lührs²,

Thibault³

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These enormous practical advantages of non-invasive diffuse optical imaging, combined with a strong sensitivity to cerebral hemodynamics and oxygenation, compensate intrinsic limitations in penetration depth and spatial resolution, and account for the large number of applications and the growing interest in this technology. Several review articles cover a variety of topics in cerebral near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), including a historical overview (Ferrari and Quaresima, 2012), description of instrumentation and methodology (Scholkmann et al, 2014b), clinical applications (Irani et al, 2007;Smith, 2011;Obrig, 2014;Yang et al, 2019), brain oximetry in newborns and adults (Wolf et al, 2012;Nielsen, 2014;la Cour et al, 2018), and critical perspectives (Fantini et al, 2018;Quaresima and Ferrari, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency-Domain Techniques for Cerebral and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Fantini

Sassaroli

2020

Front. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reviews the basic principles of frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy (FD-NIRS), which relies on intensity-modulated light sources and phase-sensitive optical detection, and its non-invasive applications to the brain. The simpler instrumentation and more straightforward data analysis of continuous-wave NIRS (CW-NIRS) accounts for the fact that almost all the current commercial instruments for cerebral NIRS have embraced the CW technique. However, FD-NIRS provides data with richer information content, which complements or exceeds the capabilities of CW-NIRS. One example is the ability of FD-NIRS to measure the absolute optical properties (absorption and reduced scattering coefficients) of tissue, and thus the absolute concentrations of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin in brain tissue. This article reviews the measured values of such optical properties and hemoglobin concentrations reported in the literature for animal models and for the human brain in newborns, infants, children, and adults. We also review the application of FD-NIRS to functional brain studies that focused on slower hemodynamic responses to brain activity (time scale of seconds) and faster optical signals that have been linked to neuronal activation (time scale of 100 ms). Another example of the power of FD-NIRS data is related to the different regions of sensitivity featured by intensity and phase data. We report recent developments that take advantage of this feature to maximize the sensitivity of non-invasive optical signals to brain tissue relative to more superficial extracerebral tissue (scalp, skull, etc.). We contend that this latter capability is a highly appealing quality of FD-NIRS, which complements absolute optical measurements and may result in significant advances in the field of non-invasive optical sensing of the brain.

show abstract

“…As a non-destructive tool providing the qualitative and quantitative predictions, NIRS (Near InfraRed Spectroscopy) has been widely used in pharmaceutical sciences [1,2], as well as in other fields including food [3], petrochemistry [4,5], agriculture [6], forensic chemistry [7], medicine sciences [8,9], etc. These works can be roughly divided into four categories: at-site, in-site, onsite and off-site, depending on the location where the analysis is performed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The performance of consumer-grade near infrared spectrometer in traditional Chinese medicine

Lin

Zhuang

Luo

et al. 2020

J. Eur. Opt. Soc.-Rapid Publ.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Technical advances in instrument manufacturing have promoted the miniaturization and cost reduction of portable NIR spectrometers. The price of a device is now affordable to ordinary consumers, which might promotes the application of NIRS in real scenarios. Generally, the portable spectrometers have a lower spectral resolution and a narrower spectral region compared with the benchtop ones. Whether the consumer grade portable spectrometers is good enough for basic analysis in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) remains unclear. Two real world applications were introduced in this work to evaluate the capability of consumer grade spectrometers solving complex problems. Spectra collected on bark samples were used to test the qualitative performance of the spectrometer. The result showed that the cross validation error of the hierarchical FDA (Fisher Discrimination Analysis) models was at most 0.0769. For the quantitative analysis, spectra of pharmaceutical powder were used to train a model to predict the moisture of new individual sample. The RPD (the Ratio of Performance to Deviation) value of the moisture model was 6.83. These results demonstrated the usability of the models built on NIRS data measured by consumer grade spectrometer.

show abstract

A Mini-Review on Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS): Where Do We Stand, and Where Should We Go?

Cited by 83 publications

References 120 publications

The potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback – a systematic review and recommendations for best practice

The potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based neurofeedback – a systematic review and recommendations for best practice

Frequency-Domain Techniques for Cerebral and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

The performance of consumer-grade near infrared spectrometer in traditional Chinese medicine

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About