Functional imaging of the developing brain with wearable high-density diffuse optical tomography: A new benchmark for infant neuroimaging outside the scanner environment
Functional imaging of the developing brain with wearable high-density diffuse optical tomography: A new benchmark for infant neuroimaging outside the scanner environment
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DOI：
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117490
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发表时间：
2021-01-15
期刊：
影响因子：
5.7
通讯作者：
Cooper, Robert J.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Frijia, Elisabetta Maria;Billing, Addison;Cooper, Robert J.
用传统的神经影像学方法研究清醒婴儿的大脑皮层功能是极具挑战性的。部分为了应对这一挑战，功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）在发育神经科学中变得越来越普遍，但具有显著的局限性，包括分辨率，空间特异性和人体工程学。在成年人中，近红外源和检测器的高密度阵列最近已被证明产生显着的改善空间分辨率和特异性相比，典型的fNIRS方法。然而，大多数现有的fNIRS设备仅允许采集类似于20-100个稀疏分布的fNIRS通道，并且增加光极的数量提出了显著的机械挑战，特别是对于婴儿应用。新一代可穿戴、模块化、高密度漫射光学断层扫描（HD-DOT）技术最近出现，克服了传统、基于纤维和低密度fNIRS测量的许多局限性。在这项新技术发展的推动下，我们首次使用可穿戴HD-DOT对婴儿大脑进行了研究。使用一个完善的社会刺激范例，并结合这种新的成像技术与先进的帽设计和空间配准，我们表明，现在可以获得高质量的，功能性的婴儿大脑的图像，无论是对环境或对婴儿参与者的约束最小。我们的研究结果与基于类似范例的先前低密度fNIRS测量结果一致，但表现出上级空间定位，改善的深度特异性，更高的SNR和参与者之间的响应一致性的显着改善。我们的数据保留率还表明，这种新一代可穿戴技术在婴儿群体中具有良好的耐受性。
Studies of cortical function in the awake infant are extremely challenging to undertake with traditional neuroimaging approaches. Partly in response to this challenge, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has become increasingly common in developmental neuroscience, but has significant limitations including resolution, spatial specificity and ergonomics. In adults, high-density arrays of near-infrared sources and detectors have recently been shown to yield dramatic improvements in spatial resolution and specificity when compared to typical fNIRS approaches. However, most existing fNIRS devices only permit the acquisition of similar to 20-100 sparsely distributed fNIRS channels, and increasing the number of optodes presents significant mechanical challenges, particularly for infant applications. A new generation of wearable, modular, high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) technologies has recently emerged that overcomes many of the limitations of traditional, fibre-based and low-density fNIRS measurements. Driven by the development of this new technology, we have undertaken the first study of the infant brain using wearable HD-DOT. Using a well-established social stimulus paradigm, and combining this new imaging technology with advances in cap design and spatial registration, we show that it is now possible to obtain high-quality, functional images of the infant brain with minimal constraints on either the environment or on the infant participants. Our results are consistent with prior low-density fNIRS measures based on similar paradigms, but demonstrate superior spatial localization, improved depth specificity, higher SNR and a dramatic improvement in the consistency of the responses across participants. Our data retention rates also demonstrate that this new generation of wearable technology is well tolerated by the infant population.