Using broadband near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the functioning of the social brain in infancy

使用宽带近红外光谱测量婴儿期社交大脑的功能

• 批准号: ES/V012436/1
• 负责人: Maheen Faisal Siddiqui
• 金额: $ 13.18万
• 依托单位: Birkbeck, University of London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV012436%2F1
• 关键词: Using; broadband; near; infrared; spectroscopy

Over the first five years of life, infants transition from being passive recipients of care to active shapers of their social world. Over this time, they develop and deploy a broad range of social skills that include language, imitation, empathy, cooperation, turn-taking, and imaginative play. How do they do this? Whilst we have mapped the behavioral development of these skills in exquisite detail, our understanding of the changes in the brain that underpin their development is in its infancy. This is important because disruptions in social brain development are implicated in disorders like autism, shyness, and anxiety. Our progress has been limited by the methods we have employed. Traditional brain imaging methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can only be used in young, sleeping infants while electroencephalography (EEG) is only sensitive to temporal but not spatial aspects of brain activity. Our understanding of social brain development has thus far often focused on the processing of static faces in young infants, a long way from the sophisticated behaviors that toddlers develop. To move forward, a new way of measuring holistic brain responses needs to be developed, in naturalistic contexts from infancy to toddlerhood.With this ESRC Fellowship, I intend to extend the work that I started during my Ph.D. in order to develop a new way to measure brain responses. More specifically, I developed and tested the use of a novel system to record multiple aspects of brain function simultaneously. Namely, it combines functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure changes in blood flow to specific brain regions, broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (bNIRS) to measure cellular changes occurring within the mitochondria of cells and EEG to measure temporally accurate, coordinated activity of large groups of neurons. I demonstrated that this system could be used to obtain measures of activity in the social brain in both infants at high and low- risk for autism. During this Fellowship, I aim toa) Develop an advanced data analysis pipeline in order to combine all the measures from this system to obtain a holistic understanding of the functioning of the social brain. Following this, I aim to write papers to disseminate this research to the scientific community.b) To collect data using this system on a larger sample of infants at high-risk for autism.c) Develop grant proposals for further funding to allow integration of this system into a number of different research projects investigating complex brain mechanisms.d) To disseminate this research to the public by organising a public engagement event.

在出生后的前五年，婴儿从被动接受照顾者转变为积极塑造他们的社会世界。在这段时间里，他们发展和部署了广泛的社交技能，包括语言，模仿，同理心，合作，轮流和想象力的发挥。他们是怎么做到的？虽然我们已经详细描绘了这些技能的行为发展，但我们对大脑中支持其发展的变化的理解仍处于起步阶段。这一点很重要，因为社交大脑发育的中断与自闭症、害羞和焦虑等疾病有关。我们所采用的方法限制了我们的进展。传统的脑成像方法，如功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），只能用于年轻的，睡眠的婴儿，而脑电图（EEG）是只敏感的时间，但不空间方面的大脑活动。到目前为止，我们对社会性大脑发育的理解往往集中在婴儿静态面孔的处理上，离幼儿发展的复杂行为还有很长的路要走。为了向前推进，需要开发一种新的方法来测量从婴儿到幼儿的自然环境中的整体大脑反应。通过ESRC奖学金，我打算扩展我在博士学位期间开始的工作。以开发一种新的方法来测量大脑的反应。更具体地说，我开发并测试了一种新颖的系统，可以同时记录大脑功能的多个方面。也就是说，它结合了功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）来测量特定脑区的血流变化，宽带近红外光谱（bNIRS）来测量细胞线粒体内发生的细胞变化，以及EEG来测量大群神经元的时间准确，协调的活动。我证明了这个系统可以用来测量自闭症高风险和低风险婴儿的社会大脑活动。在这个奖学金期间，我的目标是a）开发一个先进的数据分析管道，以便联合收割机从这个系统的所有措施，以获得对社会大脑功能的整体理解。在此之后，我的目标是写论文，传播这项研究的科学界。B）收集数据，使用该系统在一个更大的样本的婴儿在自闭症的高风险。c）制定赠款提案，进一步资助，使该系统整合到一些不同的研究项目调查复杂的大脑机制。d）传播这项研究向公众组织一个公众参与活动。

项目成果

Using multi-modal neuroimaging to characterise social brain specialisation in infants.

• DOI: 10.7554/elife.84122
• 发表时间: 2023-10-11
• 期刊: eLife
• 影响因子: 7.7
• 作者: Siddiqui M;Pinti P;Brigadoi S;Lloyd-Fox S;Elwell CE;Johnson MH;Tachtsidis I;Jones EJH
• 通讯作者: Jones EJH

An analysis framework for the integration of broadband NIRS and EEG to assess neurovascular and neurometabolic coupling.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-83420-9
• 发表时间: 2021-02-17
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Pinti P;Siddiqui MF;Levy AD;Jones EJH;Tachtsidis I
• 通讯作者: Tachtsidis I