Search

The feasibility of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to assess resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) has already been demonstrated. However the validity of fNIRS-based RSFC has rarely been studied. In the present study, fNIRS and fMRI data were simultaneously acquired from 21 subjects during the resting state. After the spatial correspondence was established between the two imaging modalities by transforming the fMRI data into fNIRS measurements space, the index of Between-Modality-Similarity (BMS) of RSFC was evaluated across multiple spatial scales. First, the RSFC between the bilateral primary motor ROI was quite similar between fNIRS and fMRI for all the subjects (BMS(ROI) = 0.95 ± 0.04 for HbO and BMS(ROI) = 0.86 ± 0.13 for HbR). Second, group-level sensorimotor RSFC maps (0.79 for HbO and 0.74 for HbR) showed higher between-modality similarity than individual-level RSFC maps (0.48 ± 0.16 for HbO and 0.41 ± 0.15 for HbR). Finally, for the first time, we combined fNIRS and graph theory to investigate topological properties of resting-state brain networks. The clustering coefficient (C(p)) and characteristic path length (L(p)) which are the most important network topological parameters, both showed high between-modality similarities (BMS(Cp) = 0.90 ± 0.03 for HbO and 0.90 ± 0.06 for HbR; BMS(Lp) = 0.92 ± 0.04 for HbO and 0.91 ± 0.05 for HbR). In summary, the converged results across all the spatial scales demonstrated that fNIRS is capable of providing comparable RSFC measures to fMRI, and thus provide direct evidence for the validity of the optical brain connectivity and the optical brain network approaches to functional brain integration during resting state., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Recent studies of resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) have emerged as a hot topic and revealed that resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) is an inherent characteristic of the resting brain. However, it is currently unclear if fNIRS-based RSFC is test-retest reliable. In this study, we utilized independent component analysis (ICA) as an effective RSFC detection tool to address the reliability question. Sixteen subjects participated in two resting-state fNIRS recording sessions held 1week (6.88±1.09 days) apart. Then, RSFC in the sensorimotor regions was extracted using ICA. Test-retest reliability was assessed for intra- and inter-sessions, at both individual and group levels, and for different hemoglobin concentration signals. Our results clearly demonstrated that map-wise reliability was excellent at the group level (with Pearson's r coefficients up to 0.88) and generally fair at the individual level. Cluster-wise reliability was better at the group level (having reproducibility indices of up to 0.97 for the size and up to 0.80 for the location of the detected RSFC) and was weaker but still fair at the individual level (0.56 and 0.46 for intra- and inter-session reliabilities, respectively). Cluster-wise intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) also exhibited fair-to-good reliability (with single-measure ICC up to 0.56), while channel-wise single-measure ICCs indicated lower reliability. We conclude that fNIRS-based, ICA-derived RSFC is an essential and reliable biomarker at the individual and group levels if interpreted in map- and cluster-wise manners. Our results also suggested that channel-wise individual-level RSFC results should be interpreted with caution if no optode co-registration procedure had been conducted and indicated that "cluster" should be treated as a minimal analytical unit in further RSFC studies using fNIRS., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Independent component analysis (ICA) is a data-driven approach to study functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Particularly, for group analysis on multiple subjects, temporally concatenation group ICA (TC-GICA) is intensively used. However, due to the usually limited computational capability, data reduction with principal component analysis (PCA: a standard preprocessing step of ICA decomposition) is difficult to achieve for a large dataset. To overcome this, TC-GICA employs multiple-stage PCA data reduction. Such multiple-stage PCA data reduction, however, leads to variable outputs due to different subject concatenation orders. Consequently, the ICA algorithm uses the variable multiple-stage PCA outputs and generates variable decompositions. In this study, a rigorous theoretical analysis was conducted to prove the existence of such variability. Simulated and real fMRI experiments were used to demonstrate the subject-order-induced variability of TC-GICA results using multiple PCA data reductions. To solve this problem, we propose a new subject order-independent group ICA (SOI-GICA). Both simulated and real fMRI data experiments demonstrated the high robustness and accuracy of the SOI-GICA results compared to those of traditional TC-GICA. Accordingly, we recommend SOI-GICA for group ICA-based fMRI studies, especially those with large data sets., (Copyright 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

As a promising non-invasive imaging technique, functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has recently earned increasing attention in resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) studies. Preliminary fNIRS-based RSFC studies adopted a seed correlation approach and yielded interesting results. However, the seed correlation approach has several inherent problems, such as neglecting of interactions among multiple regions and a dependence on seed region selection. Moreover, ineffectively reduced noise and artifacts in fNIRS measurements also negatively affect RSFC results. In this study, independent component analysis (ICA) was introduced to meet these challenges in RSFC detection based on resting-state fNIRS measurements. The results of ICA on data from the sensorimotor and the visual systems both showed functional system-specific RSFC maps. Results from comparison between ICA and the conventional seed correlation approach demonstrated, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the superior performance of ICA with higher sensitivity and specificity, especially in the case of higher noise level. The capability of ICA to separate noise and artifacts from resting-state fNIRS data was also demonstrated, and the extracted noise and artifacts were illustrated. Finally, some practical issues on performing ICA on resting-state fNIRS data were discussed., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

In this study, a resting-state fMRI based classifier, for the first time, was proposed and applied to discriminate children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from normal controls. On the basis of regional homogeneity (ReHo), a mapping of brain function at resting state, PCA-based Fisher discriminative analysis (PC-FDA) was trained to build a linear classifier. Permutation test was then conducted to identify the brain areas with the most significant contribution to the final discrimination. Experimental results showed a correct classification rate of 85% using a leave-one-out cross-validation. Moreover, some highly discriminative brain regions, like the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex, well confirmed the previous findings on ADHD. Interestingly, some important but less reported regions such as the thalamus were also identified. We conclude that the classifier, using resting-state brain function as classification feature, has potential ability to improve current diagnosis and treatment evaluation of ADHD.

Most studies of resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have applied the temporal correlation in the time courses to investigate the functional connectivity between brain regions. Alternatively, the power of low frequency fluctuation (LFF) may also be used as a biomarker to assess spontaneous activity. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate whether the amplitude of the LFF (ALFF) relates to cerebral physiological states. Ten healthy subjects underwent four resting-state fMRI scanning sessions, two for eyes-open (EO) and two for eyes-closed (EC) conditions, with two sets of parameters (TR=400 ms and 2 s, respectively). After data preprocessing, ALFF was obtained by calculating the square root of the power spectrum in the frequency range of 0.01-0.08 Hz. Our results showed that the ALFF in EO was significantly higher than that in EC (P<0.05, corrected) in the bilateral visual cortices. Furthermore, the ALFF in EO was significantly reduced in the right paracentral lobule (PCL) than in EC (P<0.05, corrected). Region of interest (ROI) analysis showed that the ALFF differences between EO and EC were consistent for each subject. In contrast, no significant ALFF differences were found between EO and EC (P<0.381) in the posterior cingulate cortex. All these results agree well with previous studies comparing EO and EC states. Our finding of the distinct ALFF difference between EO and EC in the visual cortex implies that the ALFF may be a novel biomarker for physiological states of the brain.