Resting-state brain networks in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Abstract

Significance: There is an emerging need for convenient and continuous bedside monitoring of fullterm newborns with hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) to determine whether early intervention is required. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based resting-state brain network analysis, which could provide an effective evaluation method, remains to be extensively studied.Aim: Our study aims to verify the feasibility of fNIRS-based resting-state brain networks for evaluating brain function in infants with HIBD to provide a new and effective means for clinical research in neonatal HIBD.Approach: Thirteen neonates with HIBD were scanned using fNIRS in the resting state. The brain network properties were explored to attempt to extract effective features as recognition indicators.Results: Compared with healthy controls, newborns with HIBD showed decreased brain functional connectivity. Specifically, there were severe losses of long-range functional connectivity of the contralateral parietal-temporal lobe, contralateral parietal-frontal lobe, and contralateral parietal lobe. The node degree showed a widespread decrease in the left frontal middle gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus dorsal, and right central posterior gyrus. However, newborns with HIBD showed a significantly higher local network efficiency (*p < 0.05). Subsequently, network indicators based on small-worldness, local efficiency, modularity, and normalized clustering coefficient were extracted for HIBD identification with the accuracy observed as 79.17%. Conclusions:Our findings indicate that fNIRS-based resting-state brain network analysis could support early HIBD diagnosis.

Effectiveness of Tai Chi Yunshou motor imagery training for hemiplegic upper extremity motor function in poststroke patients: study protocol for a randomized clinical trial

“…Brain network connection analysis has been widely used in the assessment of impaired brain function [ 19 ]. fNIRS is a novel, noninvasive brain function imaging technology to detect changes in oxygenated haemoglobin and deoxygenated haemoglobin in the cerebral cortex in a timely manner [ 20 ]. fNIRS will be applied to record resting-state signals with two groups.…”

Contralaterally controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation-induced changes in functional connectivity in patients with stroke assessed using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

“…fNIRS is a noninvasive tool which can record the relative hemodynamic response of cortical activation through the concentrations of both oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR). In view of its several advantages, including portability, low cost, good spatial resolution and strong anti-interference (Zhang et al, 2021 ), fNIRS is widely utilized in several clinical settings, especially in the field of neuroscience (Yang et al, 2019 ; Chen et al, 2020 ). fNIRS-derived functional connectivity (FC) provides an effective and powerful means to study the interactions and communications between different brain regions (Huo et al, 2019 ).…”

Increased cerebral cortex activation in stroke patients during electrical stimulation of cerebellar fastigial nucleus with functional near-infrared spectroscopy

“…fNIRS is a hemodynamics-based neuroimaging technique that provides a non-invasive method for the detection of relative changes in cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin (ΔHBO) at the cortical surface ( Lloyd-Fox et al, 2010 ; Obrig, 2014 ; Scholkmann et al, 2014 ). This method is commonly used to detect changes in cerebral hemodynamics during electrical stimulation and rehabilitation tasks in stroke, depression, Parkinson’s and various mental diseases ( Noda et al, 2012 ; Wang et al, 2020 ; Conceição et al, 2021 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ). Kozel et al (2009) and Li et al (2019) acquired fNIRS when their subjects were receiving transcranial magnetic stimulation, and they found decreased levels of activation and functional connectivity within the cerebrum.…”