Brain Auditory Activation Measured by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) in Neonates

Zaramella, Patrizia; Freato, Federica; Amigoni, Angela; Salvadori, Severo; Marangoni, Paola; Suppjei, Agnese; Schiavo, Barbara; Chiandetti, Lino

doi:10.1203/00006450-200102000-00014

Cited by 121 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Most studies using NIRS to assess cortical function have been carried out on adult subjects. In infants, NIRS has been used to assess the activities of the visual cortex induced by a checkerboard or flashlight simulation [Meek et al, 1998;Hoshi et al, 2000], activation of the frontal cortex by music stimulation [Sakatani et al, 1999], activation of the temporal cortex by acoustic stimulation [Zaramella et al, 2001] and activation of the olfactory cortex by odor stimulation [Bartocci et al, 2000].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noninvasive optical imaging in the visual cortex in young infants

Kusaka

Kawada

Okubo

et al. 2004

Human Brain Mapping

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During the developmental stage, the brain undergoes anatomic, functional, and metabolic changes necessary to support the complex adaptive behavior of a mature individual. Estimation of developmental changes occurring in different regions of the brain would provide a means of relating various behavioral phenomena to maturation-specific brain structures, thereby providing useful information on structure-function relationships in both normal and disease states. We used multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (MNIRS), a new noninvasive imaging technique for revealing the course of neural activity in selected brain regions, to monitor the activities of the visual cortex as mirrored by hemodynamic responses in infants subjected to photostimulation during natural sleep. In the infants, oxyhemoglobin and total hemoglobin decreased and deoxyhemoglobin increased in the visual cortex with photostimulation. This pattern of responses was different from the response pattern in adults reported previously. The different patterns of responses to photostimulation in the visual cortices of infants and adults might reflect developmental and behavioral differences. It may reflect a different functional organization of the visual cortex in infants or ongoing retinal development. Our results demonstrated that regional hemodynamic change could be detected in a small area around the visual cortex. MNIRS offers considerable potential for research and noninvasive clinical applications. Hum. Brain Mapp. 22:122-132, 2004.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Noninvasive optical imaging in the visual cortex in young infants

Kusaka

Kawada

Okubo

et al. 2004

Human Brain Mapping

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The NIRS technique used in the present research utilizes changes in blood volume and hemoglobin oxygenation (i.e., hemodynamics) as an index of neural activation (see Meek, 2002;Grinvald et al, 1991;Strangman et al, 2002a;Villringer and Chance, 1997;Villringer and Dirnagl, 1995). This technique has been used with medically at-risk infants in the clinical setting (Chen et al, 2000;Hintz et al, 2001;Meek et al, 1999b;Meek et al, 1998;Meek et al, 1999a;Sakatani et al, 1999;Soul and du Plessis, 1999;Zaramella et al, 2001) and, more recently, its applicability in the experimental setting has been explored (Baird et al, 2002;Peña et al, 2003); Taga et al, 2003;Wilcox et al, 2005). The rationale for this approach rests on the concept that neural activation in response to a stimulus results in increased energy demands in the area activated.…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessing infants' cortical response to speech using near-infrared spectroscopy

2007

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Sensitivity to spoken language is an integral part of infants' formative development, yet relatively little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie the emerging ability to perceive and process speech. This is in large part because there are a limited number of non-invasive techniques available to measure brain functioning in human infants. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), an optical imaging technique that estimates changes in neuronal activity by measuring changes in total hemoglobin concentration and oxygenation, may be a viable procedure for assessing the relation between speech processing and brain function in human infants. While auditory processing data have been gathered from newborn and preterm infants using NIRS, such data have not been collected from older infants. Many behavioral measures used to establish linguistic sensitivity in this population are accompanied by visual stimuli; however, it is unclear how coupling of auditory and visual stimuli influences neural processing. Here we studied cortical activity in infants aged 6-9 months, as measured by NIRS, during exposure to linguistic stimuli paired with visual stimuli and compared this to the activity observed in the same regions during exposure to visual stimuli alone. Results dissociate infants' hemodynamic responses to multimodal and unimodal stimuli, demonstrating the utility of NIRS for studying perceptual development in infants. In particular, these findings support the utility of NIRS for studying the neurobiology of language development in older infants, a task that is difficult to accomplish without the use of attention-getting visual stimuli.Infants' ability to perceive speech begins in the womb, and progresses dramatically during the first year of life (DeCasper and Fifer, 1980;Werker and Tees, 1984). Research indicates that during the last trimester in-utero (Mehler et al., 1988), and in the first twelve months of life post-natally (Jusczyk, 1997), infants become aware of and adjust to regularities in their native language. By using various cues found in adult speech, infants gradually come to understand and use their native language. For example, between 6 and 9 months of age, infants become sensitive to patterns within their native language, such as prosodic cues (Cutler, 1990;Morgan, 1996), phonotactic cues (Hohne and Jusczyk, 1994;Jusczyk et al., 1994), and allophonic variation (Hohne and Jusczyk, 1994). Investigating and understanding the mechanisms of the trajectory of such advances is a difficult task, and researchers have advanced the study of infant speech perception largely based on clever behavioral paradigms (e.g., Eimas et al., 1971;Trehub, 1973;Jusczyk et al., 1993;Saffran et al., 1996).The behavioral methods used to understand language development across infants' first year are typically chosen based on the specific age group being studied and the particular question being asked. For example, with infants four months of age and younger, a useful method employs a pacifier to record changes in infant su...

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“…70,61.5% in Ref. 71), no clear changes [69] or remains unchanged [72]. This may imply that the additional oxygen consumption due to neuronal activity is not compensated by the blood supply to the same degree as in adults.…”

Section: Hemodynamic Signalmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…There are few reports in the literature on hemodynamic effects in neonates, visual cortex [66][67][68], auditory cortex [69][70][71][72], speech frontal cortex [73], olfactory stimulation [74,75], pain [76][77][78], and motor cortex [14]. Bartocci's [75] findings during the presentation of unpleasant smells to infants are highly particular, because a decrease in O 2 Hb concentration was observed, while the HHb concentration remained approximately constant.…”

Section: Hemodynamic Signalmentioning

confidence: 99%