fNIRS

The integration of emotional intelligence in machines is an important step in advancing human-computer interaction. This demands the development of reliable end-to-end emotion recognition systems. However, the scarcity of public affective datasets presents a challenge. In this literature review, we emphasize the use of generative models to address this issue in neurophysiological signals, particularly Electroencephalogram (EEG) and Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). We provide a comprehensive analysis of different generative models used in the field, examining their input formulation, deployment strategies, and methodologies for evaluating the quality of synthesized data...

In the field of neuroscience, brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are used to connect the human brain with external devices, providing insights into the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes, including aesthetic perception. Non-invasive BCIs, such as EEG and fNIRS, are critical for studying central nervous system activity and understanding how individuals with cognitive deficits process and respond to aesthetic stimuli. This study assessed twenty participants who were divided into control and impaired aging (AI) groups based on MMSE scores...

In recent years, biomedical optics technology has developed rapidly. The current widespread use of biomedical optics was made possible by the invention of optical instruments. The advantages of being non-invasive, portable, effective, low cost, and less susceptible to system noise have led to the rapid development of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology for hemodynamics detection, especially in the field of functional brain imaging. At the same time, laboratories and companies have developed various fNIRS-based systems...

Exercise training integrating physical and cognitive activities is gaining attention because of its potential benefits for brain health. This study focuses on exercise training using a dart game called Wellness Darts. Wellness Darts is a sport involving throwing darts and walking to pull them out of the board, memorizing the score, and subtracting this from the total score, thus requiring the simultaneous performance of two tasks: exercise and calculation. This is expected to maintain and improve cognitive function, and whether this continual darts training affects brain function is of great interest...

Malnutrition affects 195 million children under the age of five worldwide with long term effects that include impaired cognitive development. Brain development occurs rapidly over the first 36 months of life. Whilst seemingly independent, changes to the brain and gut microbiome are linked by metabolites, hormones, and neurotransmitters as part of the gut-brain axis. In the context of severe malnutrition, the composition of the gut microbiome and the repertoire of biochemicals exchanged via the gut-brain axis vary when compared to healthy individuals...

BACKGROUND: Panic disorder is a common and important disease in clinical practice that decreases individual productivity and increases health care use. Treatments comprise medication and cognitive behavioral therapy. However, adverse medication effects and poor treatment compliance mean new therapeutic models are needed. OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that digital therapy for panic disorder may improve panic disorder symptoms and that treatment response would be associated with brain activity changes assessed with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)...

This study aimed to elucidate the alterations in the prefrontal cortex's functional connectivity and network topology in narcolepsy patients using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Twelve narcolepsy-diagnosed patients from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region's People's Hospital Sleep Medicine Department and 11 matched healthy controls underwent resting fNIRS scans. Functional connectivity and graph theory analyses were employed to assess the prefrontal cortex network's properties and their correlation with clinical features...

The study developed a memory task training system using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and neurofeedback mechanisms, and acquired and analyzed subjects' EEG signals. The results showed that subjects participating in the neurofeedback task had higher correlated brain network node degrees and average cluster coefficients in the right hemisphere brain region of the prefrontal lobe, with relatively lower dispersion of mediator centrality. In addition, the subjects' left hemisphere brain region of the prefrontal lobe section had increased centrality in the neurofeedback task...

Sex differences have been claimed an imperative factor in the optimization of psychiatric treatments. Intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), a patterned form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, is a promising non-invasive treatment option. Here, we investigated whether the real-time neural response to iTBS differs between men and women, and which mechanisms may mediate these differences. To this end, we capitalized on a concurrent iTBS/functional near-infrared spectroscopy setup over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a common clinical target, to test our assumptions...

Maintaining sufficient cerebral oxygen metabolism is crucial for human survival, especially in challenging conditions such as high-altitudes. Human cognitive neural activity is sensitive to fluctuations in oxygen levels. However, there is a lack of publicly available datasets on human behavioural responses and cerebral dynamics assessments during the execution of conflicting tasks in natural hypoxic environments. We recruited 80 healthy new immigrant volunteers (males, aged 20 ± 2 years) and employed the Stroop cognitive conflict paradigm...

OBJECTIVE: Subthreshold depression is an essential precursor and risk factor for major depressive disorder, and its accurate identification and timely intervention are important for reducing the prevalence of major depressive disorder. Therefore, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopic imaging (fNIRS) to explore the characteristics of the brain neural activity of college students with subthreshold depression in the verbal fluency task. METHODS: A total of 72 subthreshold depressed college students (SDs) and 67 healthy college students (HCs) were recruited, and all subjects were subjected to a verbal fluency task (VFT) while a 53-channel fNIRS device was used to collect the subjects' cerebral blood oxygenation signals...

Emotional appraisals of political stimuli (e.g., videos) have been shown to drive shared neural encoding, which correspond to shared, yet divisive, interpretations of such stimuli. However, mindfulness practice may entrain a form of emotion regulation that de-automatizes social biases, possibly through alteration of such neural mechanisms. The present study combined a naturalistic neuroimaging paradigm and a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of short-term mindfulness training (MT) (n = 35) vs structurally equivalent Cognitive Reappraisal training (CT) (n = 37) on politically-situated emotions while evaluating the mechanistic role of prefrontal cortical neural synchrony...

This study investigated brain responses during cybersickness in healthy adults using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Thirty participants wore a head-mounted display and observed a virtual roller coaster scene that induced cybersickness. Cortical activation during the virtual roller coaster task was measured using fNIRS. Cybersickness symptoms were evaluated using a Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) administered after the virtual rollercoaster. Pearson correlations were performed for cybersickness symptoms and the beta coefficients of hemodynamic responses...

Immersive virtual reality (iVR) employs head-mounted displays or cave-like environments to create a sensory-rich virtual experience that simulates the physical presence of a user in a digital space. The technology holds immense promise in neuroscience research and therapy. In particular, virtual reality (VR) technologies facilitate the development of diverse tasks and scenarios closely mirroring real-life situations to stimulate the brain within a controlled and secure setting. It also offers a cost-effective solution in providing a similar sense of interaction to users when conventional stimulation methods are limited or unfeasible...

OBJECTIVE: Previous research has shown numerous health benefits of yoga, a multicomponent physical and mental activity. The three important aspects of both traditional and modern yoga are breath work, postures, and meditation. However, the neural mechanisms associated with these three aspects of yoga remain largely unknown. The present study investigated the neural underpinnings associated with each of these three yoga components in long- and short-term yoga practitioners to clarify the neural advantages of yoga experience, aiming to provide a more comprehensive understanding of yoga's health-promoting effects...

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The functional properties of the infant brain are poorly understood. Recent advances in cognitive neuroscience are opening new avenues for measuring brain activity in human infants. These include novel uses of existing technologies such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), the availability of newer technologies including functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and optically pumped magnetometry (OPM), and innovative applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in awake infants during cognitive tasks...

OBJECTIVE: To date, early detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has mainly depended on paper-based neuropsychological assessments. Recently, biomarkers for MCI detection have gained a lot of attention because of the low sensitivity of neuropsychological assessments. This study proposed the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-derived data with convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to identify MCI. METHODS: Eighty-two subjects with MCI and 148 healthy controls (HC) performed the 2-back task, and their oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) changes in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) were recorded during the task...

This study investigates neural processes in infant speech processing, with a focus on left frontal brain regions and hemispheric lateralization in Mandarin-speaking infants' acquisition of native tonal categories. We tested 2- to 6-month-old Mandarin learners to explore age-related improvements in tone discrimination, the role of inferior frontal regions in abstract speech category representation, and left hemisphere lateralization during tone processing. Using a block design, we presented four Mandarin tones via [ta] and measured oxygenated hemoglobin concentration with functional near-infrared spectroscopy...

OBJECTIVE: The highly infiltrative growth of glioblastoma (GBM) makes distinction between the tumor and normal brain tissue challenging. Therefore, fluorescence-guided surgery is often used to improve visual identification of radiological tumor margins. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of recently developed molecularly targeted near-infrared (NIR) protease-activated probes to visualize GBM tissue and to compare the most promising candidate with the gold standard, 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)...