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Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering

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A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurotechnology and Neuroimaging".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 18440

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Prof. Dr. Chaozhe Zhu

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Guest Editor

State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Interests: fNIRS; TMS; brain–computer interface; transcranial brain atlas; resting-state connectivity

Dr. Tao Liu

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Guest Editor

1. School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
2. School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: neuromanagement; neuromarketing; social neuroscience; group decision making and collaboration; neuroaesthetics; neuroengineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last three decades, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has greatly promoted our understanding of human brain, especially in special samples and in special contexts. Up to ten years ago, fNIRS was normally used to examine basic cognitive functions such as working memory, executive function, linguistic processing, and motor imagery, while in the last decade, with the development of techniques of hyperscanning and neurofeedback, fNIRS has attracted increasing attention in the research fields of social interaction, education and learning, child development, ergonomics, brain–computer interface, rehabilitation, and neural engineering.

Following this historical development of the fNIRS literature, fNIRS has largely improved the ecological validity of traditional cognitive neuroscience research and is thus promoting connections between basic cognitive neuroscience research and daily-life scenarios. In the next decade, fNIRS will continue to play a significant role in interdisciplinary research connecting cognitive neuroscience and other engineering, social, medical, and even design sciences.

In this Special Issue, therefore, we invite empirical and review research addressing (but not limited to) the following topics using fNIRS:

1) Social neuroscience

2) Neuromanagement

3) Neuromarketing

4) Educational neuroscience

5) Developmental neuroscience

6) Neuroaesthetics

7) Neuroergonomics

8) Neurorehabilitation

9) Neuroengineering

10) Brain–computer interface

Prof. Dr. Chaozhe Zhu
Dr. Tao Liu
Guest Editors

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Keywords

fNIRS
social neuroscience
neuromanagement
neuromarketing
educational neuroscience
developmental neuroscience
neuroaesthetics
neuroergonomics
neurorehabilitation
neuroengineering

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 724 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Comparison of Early Hemodynamic Response to Single-Pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation following Inhibitory or Excitatory Theta Burst Stimulation on Motor Cortex

by Corina Gorban, Zhongxing Zhang, Armand Mensen and Ramin Khatami

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(11), 1609; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13111609 - 20 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 884

Abstract

We present a new study design aiming to enhance the understanding of the mechanism by which continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) or intermittent theta burst stimulation (iTBS) paradigms elicit cortical modulation. Using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), we compared the cortical hemodynamics of the previously inhibited (after cTBS) or excited (after iTBS) left primary motor cortex (M1) as elicited by single-pulse TMS (spTMS) in a cross-over design. Mean relative changes in hemodynamics within 6 s of the stimulus were compared using a two-sample t-test (p < 0.05) and linear mixed model between real and sham stimuli and between stimuli after cTBS and iTBS. Only spTMS after cTBS resulted in a significant increase (p = 0.04) in blood volume (BV) compared to baseline. There were no significant changes in other hemodynamic parameters (oxygenated/deoxygenated hemoglobin). spTMS after cTBS induced a larger increase in BV than spTMS after iTBS (p = 0.021) and sham stimulus after cTBS (p = 0.009). BV showed no significant difference between real and sham stimuli after iTBS (p = 0.37). The greater hemodynamic changes suggest increased vasomotor reactivity after cTBS compared to iTBS. In addition, cTBS could decrease lateral inhibition, allowing activation of surrounding areas after cTBS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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22 pages, 3818 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Wan-Chun Su, McKenzie Culotta, Jessica Mueller, Daisuke Tsuzuki and Anjana N. Bhat

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(9), 1284; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13091284 - 04 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1138

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in gestural communication during social interactions. However, the neural mechanisms involved in naturalistic gestural communication remain poorly understood. In this study, cortical activation patterns associated with gestural communication were examined in thirty-two children with and without ASD (mean age: 11.0 years, SE: 0.6 years). Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to record cortical activation while children produced, observed, or imitated communicative gestures. Children with ASD demonstrated more spatial and temporal errors when performing and imitating communicative gestures. Although both typically developing (TD) children and children with ASD showed left-lateralized cortical activation during gesture production, children with ASD showed hyperactivation in the middle/inferior frontal gyrus (MIFG) during observation and imitation, and hypoactivation in the middle/superior temporal gyrus (MSTG) during gesture production compared to their TD peers. More importantly, children with ASD exhibited greater MSTG activation during imitation than during gesture production, suggesting that imitation could be an effective intervention strategy to engage cortical regions crucial for processing and producing gestures. Our study provides valuable insights into the neural mechanisms underlying gestural communication difficulties in ASD, while also identifying potential neurobiomarkers that could serve as objective measures for evaluating intervention effectiveness in children with ASD. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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39 pages, 5273 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Operational Modal Analysis of Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Measure of 2-Month Exercise Intervention Effects in Sedentary Older Adults with Diabetes and Cognitive Impairment

by Fei Zhao, Machiko Tomita and Anirban Dutta

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(7), 1099; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13071099 - 20 Jul 2023

Viewed by 1613

Abstract

The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD 2019 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators) found that diabetes significantly increases the overall burden of disease, leading to a 24.4% increase in disability-adjusted life years. Persistently high glucose levels in diabetes can cause structural and functional changes in proteins throughout the body, and the accumulation of protein aggregates in the brain that can be associated with the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). To address this burden in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), a combined aerobic and resistance exercise program was developed based on the recommendations of the American College of Sports Medicine. The prospectively registered clinical trials (NCT04626453, NCT04812288) involved two groups: an Intervention group of older sedentary adults with T2DM and a Control group of healthy older adults who could be either active or sedentary. The completion rate for the 2-month exercise program was high, with participants completing on an average of 89.14% of the exercise sessions. This indicated that the program was practical, feasible, and well tolerated, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also safe, requiring minimal equipment and no supervision. Our paper presents portable near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) based measures that showed muscle oxygen saturation (SmO2), i.e., the balance between oxygen delivery and oxygen consumption in muscle, drop during bilateral heel rise task (BHR) and the 6 min walk task (6MWT) significantly (p < 0.05) changed at the post-intervention follow-up from the pre-intervention baseline in the T2DM Intervention group participants. Moreover, post-intervention changes from pre-intervention baseline for the prefrontal activation (both oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin) showed statistically significant (p < 0.05, q < 0.05) effect at the right superior frontal gyrus, dorsolateral, during the Mini-Cog task. Here, operational modal analysis provided further insights into the 2-month exercise intervention effects on the very-low-frequency oscillations (<0.05 Hz) during the Mini-Cog task that improved post-intervention in the sedentary T2DM Intervention group from their pre-intervention baseline when compared to active healthy Control group. Then, the 6MWT distance significantly (p < 0.01) improved in the T2DM Intervention group at post-intervention follow-up from pre-intervention baseline that showed improved aerobic capacity and endurance. Our portable NIRS based measures have practical implications at the point of care for the therapists as they can monitor muscle and brain oxygenation changes during physical and cognitive tests to prescribe personalized physical exercise doses without triggering individual stress response, thereby, enhancing vascular health in T2DM. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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9 pages, 1243 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

A Novel Exploratory Graph-Based Analytical Tool for Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy in Naturalistic Experiments: An Illustrative Application in Typically Developing Children

by João Ricardo Sato, Tiago Duarte Pereira, Clarice Maria de Lucena Martins, Thaynã Alves Bezerra, Maria Eduarda Queiroz, Larissa Pereira Costa, Suellen Marinho Andrade and Claudinei Eduardo Biazoli

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(6), 905; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13060905 - 03 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1326

Abstract

Naturalistic paradigms are being increasingly applied to investigate human brain function. Compared with resting-state and task-based paradigms in neuroimaging, naturalistic stimuli and situations can be potentially more readily translated to daily-life applications. Among neuroimaging modalities, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is particularly suitable for naturalistic investigations and applications. However, specific and tailored statistical analysis to interrogate brain function using naturalistic fNIRS is warranted. Here, we describe an exploratory graph-centrality-based approach to investigating participants’ spatiotemporal similarities from the fNIRS signal. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach in a sample of typically developing children (10 males and 9 females; mean age of 5.2 years old; sd = 0.78) while they watch the Inscapes movie designed for neuroimaging acquisition. A node in the left dorsal prefrontal cortex presented similar responses across children, and those fNIRS responses were in line with scene transitions in the movie stimulus. Our results suggest the feasibility of applying centrality graph-based measures to investigate brain function in naturalistic fNIRS during development. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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16 pages, 5063 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Increased Interpersonal Brain Synchronization in Romantic Couples Is Associated with Higher Honesty: An fNIRS Hyperscanning Study

by Chong Shao, Xuecheng Zhang, You Wu, Wenhai Zhang and Binghai Sun

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(5), 833; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13050833 - 21 May 2023

Viewed by 2282

Abstract

Previous studies on the brain–brain interaction of deception have shown different patterns of interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) between different genders. However, the brain–brain mechanisms in the cross-sex composition need to be better understood. Furthermore, there needs to be more discussion about how relationships (e.g., romantic couples vs. strangers) affect the brain–brain mechanism under interactive deception. To elaborate on these issues, we used the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based hyperscanning approach to simultaneously measure interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in romantic couples (heterosexual) and cross-sex stranger dyads during the sender–receiver game. The behavioral results found that the deception rate of males was lower than that of females, and romantic couples were deceived less than strangers. Significantly increased IBS was observed in the frontopolar cortex (FPC) and right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) of the romantic couple group. Moreover, the IBS is negatively correlated with the deception rate. No significantly increased IBS was observed in cross-sex stranger dyads. The result corroborated the lower deception of males and romantic couples in cross-sex interactions. Furthermore, IBS in the PFC and rTPJ was the underlying dual-brain neural basis for supporting honesty in romantic couples. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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14 pages, 1676 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Prefrontal Cortex Hemodynamics and Functional Connectivity Changes during Performance Working Memory Tasks in Older Adults with Sleep Disorders

by Jiahui Gao, Lin Zhang, Jingfang Zhu, Zhenxing Guo, Miaoran Lin, Linxin Bai, Peiyun Zheng, Weilin Liu, Jia Huang and Zhizhen Liu

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(3), 497; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13030497 - 15 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3453

Abstract

Objective: Older adults with sleep disorders (SDs) show impaired working memory abilities, and working memory processes are closely related to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). However, the neural mechanism of working memory impairment in older adults with SD remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate changes in PFC function among older adults with SD when carrying out the N-back task by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Method: A total of 37 older adults with SDs were enrolled in this study and matched with 37 healthy older adults by gender, age, and years of education. Changes in PFC function were observed by fNIRS when carrying out the N-back task. Results: The accuracy on the 0-back and 2-back tasks in the SD group was significantly lower than that in the healthy controls (HC) group. The oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration of channel 8 which located in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was significantly reduced in the SD group during the 2-back task, and the channel-to-channel connectivity between the PFC subregions was significantly decreased. Conclusions: These results suggest that patients with sleep disorders have a weak performance of working memory; indeed, the activation and functional connectivity in the prefrontal subregions were reduced in this study. This may provide new evidence for working memory impairment and brain function changes in elderly SDs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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17 pages, 23688 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Qitong Chu, Xin Guo, Tengyu Zhang, Congcong Huo, Xuemin Zhang, Gongcheng Xu, Zhaoxin Lun, Shengcui Cheng and Ping Xie

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(2), 338; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020338 - 16 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1473

Abstract

Stroke is one of the primary causes of motor disorders, which can seriously affect the patient’s quality of life. However, the assessment of the upper limb affected by stroke is commonly based on scales, and the characteristics of brain reorganization induced by limb movement are not clear. Thus, this study aimed to investigate stroke-related cortical reorganization based on functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during upper limb multi-joint linkage movement with reference to the Fugl–Meyer Assessment of the upper extremities (FMA-UE). In total, 15 stroke patients and 15 healthy subjects participated in this study. The functional connectivity (FC) between channels and the regions of interest (ROI) was calculated by Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The results showed that compared with the control group, the FC between the prefrontal cortex and the motor cortex was significantly increased in the resting state and the affected upper limb’s multi-joint linkage movements, while the FC between the motor cortex was significantly decreased during the unaffected upper limb’s multi-joint linkage movements. Moreover, the significantly increased ROI FC in the resting state showed a significantly positive correlation with FMA-UE in stroke patients (p < 0.05). This study highlights a new biomarker for evaluating the function of movement in stroke patients and provides guidance for rehabilitation training. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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13 pages, 2837 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Neuroplasticity Elicited by Modified Pharyngeal Electrical Stimulation: A Pilot Study

by Xue Zhang, Xiaolu Wang, Yunxiao Liang, Yilong Shan, Rong Song, Xin Li, Zulin Dou and Hongmei Wen

Brain Sci. 2023, 13(1), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010119 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1751

Abstract

Modified pharyngeal electrical stimulation (mPES) is a novel therapeutic method for patients with neurogenic dysphagia and tracheostomy. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still unclear. This study aims to investigate the impact of mPES on swallowing-related neural networks and involuntary swallowing frequency using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). 20 healthy volunteers participated in this study, including two separate experimental paradigms. Experiment 1: Immediate effect observation, 20 participants (10 female; mean age 47.65 ± 10.48) were delivered with real and sham mPES in random order for 8 repetitions. fNIRS signals were collected during the whole period of Experiments 1. Swallowing frequency was assessed during sham/real mPES. Experiment 2: Prolonged effect observation, 7 out of the 20 participants (4 female; mean age 49.71 ± 6.26) completed real mPES for 5 sessions (1 session/day). 13 of the 20 participants withdrew for personal reasons. Hemodynamic changes were recorded by fNIRS on day 1 and 5. Results show that mPES evoked cortical activation over a distributed network in bilateral primary somatosensory, primary motor, somatosensory association cortex, pre-motor and supplementary motor area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, and supramarginal gyrus part of Wernicke’s area. Meanwhile, the increased frequency of involuntary swallowing was associated with decreased frontopolar activation (frontopolar cortex: Channel 6, p = 0.024, r = −0.529; Channel 23, p = 0.019, r = −0.545). Furthermore, after five days of mPES, decreased cortical activations were observed in the right dorsolateral prefrontal and supramarginal gyrus part of Wernicke’s area, and left frontopolar and M1 areas. Overall, these results might suggest that mPES could elicit changes in neuroplasticity that could reorganize the swallowing-related neural network and increase involuntary swallow frequency. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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15 pages, 2853 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Intrinsic Organization of Occipital Hubs Predicts Depression: A Resting-State fNIRS Study

by You Xu, Yajie Wang, Nannan Hu, Lili Yang, Zhenghe Yu, Li Han, Qianqian Xu, Jingjing Zhou, Ji Chen, Hongjing Mao and Yafeng Pan

Brain Sci. 2022, 12(11), 1562; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12111562 - 17 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1672

Abstract

Dysfunctional brain networks have been found in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study, to verify this in a more straightforward way, we investigated the intrinsic organization of brain networks in MDD by leveraging the resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (rs-fNIRS). Thirty-four MDD patients (24 females, 38.41 ± 13.14 years old) and thirty healthy controls (22 females, 34.43 ± 5.03 years old) underwent a 10 min rest while their brain activity was recorded via fNIRS. The results showed that MDD patients and healthy controls exhibited similar resting-state functional connectivity. Moreover, the depression group showed lower small-world Lambda (1.12 ± 0.04 vs. 1.16 ± 0.10, p = 0.04) but higher global efficiency (0.51 ± 0.03 vs. 0.48 ± 0.05, p = 0.03) than the control group. Importantly, MDD patients, as opposed to healthy controls, showed a significantly lower nodal local efficiency at the left middle occipital gyrus (0.56 ± 0.36 vs. 0.81 ± 0.20, p_FDR < 0.05), which predicted the level of depression in MDD (r = 0.45, p = 0.01, R² = 0.15). In sum, we found a more integrated brain network in MDD patients with a lower nodal local efficiency at the occipital hub, which could predict depressive symptoms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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14 pages, 4202 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by Ren Zhuang, Shizhe Zhu, Youxin Sui, Mengye Zhou, Ting Yang, Chaolan Wang, Tianjiao Zhang, Jin Wang, Chaojie Kan, Ying Shen, Tong Wang and Chuan Guo

Brain Sci. 2022, 12(11), 1479; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12111479 - 31 Oct 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1434

Abstract

We sought to investigate age-related differences in stepping reactions to a sudden balance perturbation, focusing on muscle activity and cortical activation. A total of 18 older healthy adults (older group, OG) and 16 young healthy adults (young group, YG) were recruited into this study. A cable-pull instrument was used to induce a forward perturbation at the waist level among participants, who were required to take the right step to maintain their postural balance. The seven right lower-limb muscle activities during periods of compensatory postural adjustments (CPAs) were recorded by surface electromyography. At the same time, the signals of channels located in the prefrontal, temporal and parietal lobes were recorded by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during the whole process. Integral electromyograms of the right peroneus muscle, gluteus medius, and lateral gastrocnemius muscles showed greater activity for the OG in the CPA periods. Two channels belonging to the right pre-frontal (PFC) and pre-motor cortex (PMC) revealed lower activation in the OG compared with the YG. These findings can help us to better understand the differences at the peripheral and central levels and may provide some suggestions for future neuromodulation techniques and other clinical treatments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Neuroscience, Neuromanagement, and Neuroengineering)

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