Biomarkers of brain development in Early Childhood: a pilot study using functional near infrared spectroscopy

Authors

• AA Anderson
• E Smith
• V Chernomordik
• F Chowdhry
• NS Karamzadeh
• A Thurm
• A Gandjbakhche

Abstract

To understand the brain function and its development it is crucial to start from early childhood, specifically for early intervention of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging non-invasive brain imaging technology that is affordable, compact, and less susceptible to patient movement. Therefore, it becomes suitable for imaging the cortical activation in young cohorts. We used fNIRS to assess the functional biomarkers based on changes in oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin in prefrontal cortex (PFC) in response to functional tasks. We introduced a novel parameter, Oxygenation Variability Index (OV index), directly obtained from fNIRS data. This index measures the changes in oxygen saturation in PFC at frequencies related to cerebral autoregulation (

Scientific Focus Area: Biomedical Engineering and Biophysics

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