Relationship between cerebral hemodynamics and age in the prefrontal cortex: A pilot study using Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy in children

Monday, September 22, 2014 — Poster Session I
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.	FAES Academic Center	NICHD	BIOENG-2

* FARE Award Winner

Authors

• AA Anderson
• V Chernomordik
• F Chowdry
• A Thurm
• E Smith
• D Black
• D Matthews
• AH Gandjbakhche

Abstract

Cerebral hemodynamics is assessed by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measurements of the frontal cortex of 17 children (age 4.1-8 years), performing standard Go/No-Go tasks. Analysis of the data in two frequency bands, attributed to cerebral autoregulation (CA) and respiration, indicates major differences in observed oscillations of oxygen saturation in both bands. We have introduced a novel parameter Oxygenation Variability index (OV Index) that can be directly obtained from fNIRS data to quantitatively characterize these differences. Applying the chosen frequency bands provides the distinction between underlying physiological process and brain function. Since cerebral autoregulation is known to be a critical process for the neural and brain function, it is likely to vary with brain development (age) in children. Our pilot data confirm such link, revealing strong correlation between age and OV index in the age range of 4.7-6.7 years. However, for children above the age of 7 we have observed lower OV indexes, indicating some change in degree of CA for older population. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the relationship between development of cerebral autoregulation and age in children and can be used to further understand brain function and its impairments in neurodevelopmental disorders.

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