Search

Migraine is a highly prevalent neurovascular disorder that affects approximately 15% of the global population. Migraine attacks are a complex cascade of neurologic events that lead to debilitating symptoms and are often associated with inhibitory behavior. The constellation of severe signs and symptoms during the ictal phase (headache attack) makes migraine the third most common cause of disability globally in both sexes under the age of 50. Misuse of pharmaceuticals, such as opiates, can lead to devastating outcomes and exacerbation of pain and headache attacks. A safe and well-tolerated non-pharmacological research approach is high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation over the M1.

Morphological awareness, or sensitivity to units of meaning, is an essential component of reading comprehension development. Current neurobiological models of reading and dyslexia have largely been built upon phonological processing models, yet reading for meaning is as essential as reading for sound. To fill this gap, the present study explores the relation between children's neural organization for morphological awareness and successful reading comprehension in typically developing and impaired readers. English-speaking children ages 6-11 (N = 97; mean age = 8.6 years, 25% reading impaired) completed standard literacy assessments as well as an auditory morphological awareness task during functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) neuroimaging, which included root (e.g., PERSON + al) and derivational (e.g., quick + LY) morphology. Regression analyses revealed that children's morphological awareness predicted unique variance in reading comprehension above and beyond demographic factors, vocabulary knowledge, and decoding ability. Neuroimaging analyses further revealed that children with stronger reading comprehension showed greater engagement of brain regions associated with integrating sound and meaning, including left inferior frontal, middle temporal, and inferior parietal regions. This effect was especially notable for the derivational morphology condition that involved manipulating more analytically demanding and semantically abstract units (e.g., un-, -ly, -ion). Together, these findings suggest that successful reading comprehension, and its deficit in dyslexia, may be related to the ability to manipulate morpho-phonological units of word meaning and structure. These results inform theoretical perspectives on literacy and children's neural architecture for learning to read.

Objectives Phantom sound perception (tinnitus) may arise from altered brain activity within auditory cortex. Auditory cortex neurons in tinnitus animal models show increased spontaneous firing rates. This may be a core characteristic of tinnitus. Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has shown similar findings in human auditory cortex. Current fNIRS approaches with cap recordings are limited to ∼3 cm depth of signal penetration due to the skull thickness. To address this limitation, we present an innovative fNIRS approach via probes adapted to the external auditory canal. The adapted probes were placed deeper and closer to temporal lobe of the brain to bypass confining skull bone and improve neural recordings. Methods Twenty adults with tinnitus and 20 nontinnitus controls listened to periods of silence and broadband noise (BBN) during standard cap and adapted ear canal fNIRS neuroimaging. The evaluators were not blinded, but the protocol and postprocessing for the two groups were identical. Results Standard fNIRS measurements in participants with tinnitus revealed increased auditory cortex activity during silence that was suppressed during auditory stimulation with BBN. Conversely, controls displayed increased activation with noise but not during silence. Importantly, adapted ear canal fNIRs probes showed similar hemodynamic responses seen with cap probes in both tinnitus and controls. Conclusions In this proof of concept study, we have successfully fabricated, adapted, and utilized a novel fNIRS technology that replicates established findings from traditional cap fNIRS probes. This exciting new innovation, validated by replicating previous and current cap findings in auditory cortex, may have applications to future studies to investigate brain changes not only in tinnitus but in other pathologic states that may involve the temporal lobe and surrounding brain regions. Level of Evidence NA.

How do early bilingual experiences influence children's neural architecture for word processing? Dual language acquisition can yield common influences that may be shared across different bilingual groups, as well as language-specific influences stemming from a given language pairing. To investigate these effects, we examined bilingual English speakers of Chinese or Spanish, and English monolinguals, all raised in the US (N = 152, ages 5-10). Children completed an English morphological word processing task during fNIRS neuroimaging. The findings revealed both language-specific and shared bilingual effects. The language-specific effects were that Chinese and Spanish bilinguals showed principled differences in their neural organization for English lexical morphology. The common bilingual effects shared by the two groups were that in both bilingual groups, increased home language proficiency was associated with stronger left superior temporal gyrus (STG) activation when processing the English word structures that are most dissimilar from the home language. The findings inform theories of language and brain development during the key periods of neural reorganization for learning to read by illuminating experience-based plasticity in linguistically diverse learners.

Background Pain is a complex experience that involves sensory-discriminative and cognitive-emotional neuronal processes. It has long been known across cultures that pain can be relieved by mindful breathing (MB). There is a common assumption that MB exerts its analgesic effect through interoception. Interoception refers to consciously refocusing the mind’s attention to the physical sensation of internal organ function. Objective In this study, we dissect the cortical analgesic processes by imaging the brains of healthy subjects exposed to traditional MB (TMB) and compare them with another group for which we augmented MB to an outside sensory experience via virtual reality breathing (VRB). Methods The VRB protocol involved in-house–developed virtual reality 3D lungs that synchronized with the participants’ breathing cycles in real time, providing them with an immersive visual-auditory exteroception of their breathing. Results We found that both breathing interventions led to a significant increase in pain thresholds after week-long practices, as measured by a thermal quantitative sensory test. However, the underlying analgesic brain mechanisms were opposite, as revealed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy data. In the TMB practice, the anterior prefrontal cortex uniquely modulated the premotor cortex. This increased its functional connection with the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), thereby facilitating the S1-based sensory-interoceptive processing of breathing but inhibiting its other role in sensory-discriminative pain processing. In contrast, virtual reality induced an immersive 3D exteroception with augmented visual-auditory cortical activations, which diminished the functional connection with the S1 and consequently weakened the pain processing function of the S1. Conclusions In summary, our study suggested two analgesic neuromechanisms of VRB and TMB practices—exteroception and interoception—that distinctively modulated the S1 processing of the ascending noxious inputs. This is in line with the concept of dualism (Yin and Yang).

For monitoring of concussion, brain function, organ condition and other medical applications, what is needed is a non-invasive method of monitoring tissue metabolism. MRI-based functional imaging technology detects changes in blood oxygenation, a correlate of neural activity, and thus may offer a prediction of prognosis in cases of concussion and other cerebral traumas. Yet, potential relationships between perturbations to cerebral metabolism and patient outcomes cannot be effectively exploited clinically because we lack a practical, low-cost, non-invasive means to monitor cerebral oxygenation and metabolism in the emergency department, operating room, or medical facilities. We have developed a device to optically assay the redox state of Cytochrome-C-Oxidase (CCO), the mitochondrial enzyme responsible for the last step of the electron transport chain. Changes in CCO redox reflect changes in respiratory flux, and thus changes in the rate of oxidative adenosine triphosphate (ATP) synthesis. In other words, changes in CCO reflect brain cell’s metabolic activity more directly than the traditional blood oxygenation measurement methods. To non-invasively measure changes in CCO as well as blood oxygenation, we have developed a Super-Continuum Infrared Spectroscopy of Cytochrome-C-Oxidase (SCISCCO) system that uses an all-fiber integrated, super-continuum light source to simultaneously measure both of the new (CCO) and the traditional (blood oxygenation) markers of neural metabolism. The SCISCCO system is validated by confirming the near-infrared spectrum of CCO in vitro. To demonstrate in vivo feasibility, the measured responses of oxygenation and CCO responses to acute ischemia (e.g., blood pressure tests) in human participants are compared to data from the literature. Furthermore, we show that the new device’s measurements of oxygenated (HbO) and deoxygenated (HbR) hemoglobin in response to breath hold challenges are principled and consistent with previously reported findings. The validated SCISCCO system is finally applied to measure cerebral oxygenation and the redox state of CCO in participants during an attention test protocol. Twenty-five healthy adults completed an attention task that included nine 60-second periods of attention task, interleaved with 60-s periods of resting baseline. It has been well established that the frontal lobe of the human brain is active during tasks of attention. We therefore predicted that attention task should elicit an increase in HbO concentration accompanied by a decrease in redox state of CCO (e.g., ratio of oxidized CCO to reduced CCO) in frontal lobe brain regions as measured with the SCISCCO system. Our findings are consistent with our predictions: HbO concentration increases while CCO concentration decreases during the attention blocks relative to the resting baseline, thereby indicating an increase in oxidative metabolism of the frontal lobe brain regions of interest. Our systematic, multi-method approach thus validates the new device as well as the validity of the metabolic biomarkers that it measures. The SCISCCO system could be a new tool for monitoring brain and organ metabolism, which could be invaluable for screening concussion patients or use in an operating or emergency room to gauge patient’s organ response to treatments.

Aim: The underlying neurophysiological effects of concussion often result in attenuated cognitive and cortical function. To understand the relation between cognition and brain injury, we investigated the effects of concussion on attentional networks using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Materials & methods: Healthy controls and concussed patients, tested within 72 h from injury (T1) and after symptoms resolved (T2) completed a computerized attention task during fNIRS imaging. Results: T1 patients exhibited slower reaction times and reduced brain activation pattern relative to healthy controls. Interestingly, the cortical oxygenation hemoglobin response at T2 was greater relative to T1 and healthy controls, while reaction time was normative. Conclusion: The exploratory findings of this study suggest once asymptomatic, a compensatory hemodynamic response may support the restoration of reaction time despite ongoing physiological recovery.

Understanding how novices reason about coding at a neurological level has implications for training the next generation of software engineers. In recent years, medical imaging has been increasingly employed to investigate patterns of neural activity associated with coding activity. However, such studies have focused on advanced undergraduates and professionals. In a human study of 31 participants, we use functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure the neural activity associated with introductory programming. In a controlled, contrast-based experiment, we relate brain activity when coding to that of reading natural language or mentally rotating objects (a spatial visualization task). Our primary result is that all three tasks -- coding, prose reading, and mental rotation -- are mentally distinct for novices. However, while those tasks are neurally distinct, we find more significant differences between prose and coding than between mental rotation and coding. Intriguingly, we generally find more activation in areas of the brain associated with spatial ability and task difficulty for novice coding compared to that reported in studies with more expert developers. Finally, in an exploratory analysis, we also find a neural activation pattern predictive of programming performance 11 weeks later. While preliminary, these findings both expand on previous results (e.g., relating expertise to a similarity between coding and prose reading) and also provide a new understanding of the cognitive processes underlying novice programming., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 2021 IEEE/ACM 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE)

BACKGROUND Pain is a complex experience that involves sensory-discriminative and cognitive-emotional neuronal processes. It has long been known across cultures that pain can be relieved by mindful breathing (MB). There is a common assumption that MB exerts its analgesic effect through interoception. Interoception refers to consciously refocusing the mind’s attention to the physical sensation of internal organ function. OBJECTIVE In this study, we dissect the cortical analgesic processes by imaging the brains of healthy subjects exposed to traditional MB (TMB) and compare them with another group for which we augmented MB to an outside sensory experience via virtual reality breathing (VRB). METHODS The VRB protocol involved in-house–developed virtual reality 3D lungs that synchronized with the participants’ breathing cycles in real time, providing them with an immersive visual-auditory exteroception of their breathing. RESULTS We found that both breathing interventions led to a significant increase in pain thresholds after week-long practices, as measured by a thermal quantitative sensory test. However, the underlying analgesic brain mechanisms were opposite, as revealed by functional near-infrared spectroscopy data. In the TMB practice, the anterior prefrontal cortex uniquely modulated the premotor cortex. This increased its functional connection with the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), thereby facilitating the S1-based sensory-interoceptive processing of breathing but inhibiting its other role in sensory-discriminative pain processing. In contrast, virtual reality induced an immersive 3D exteroception with augmented visual-auditory cortical activations, which diminished the functional connection with the S1 and consequently weakened the pain processing function of the S1. CONCLUSIONS In summary, our study suggested two analgesic neuromechanisms of VRB and TMB practices—exteroception and interoception—that distinctively modulated the S1 processing of the ascending noxious inputs. This is in line with the concept of dualism (Yin and Yang).

Objective Tinnitus, phantom sound perception, arises from aberrant brain activity within auditory cortex. In tinnitus animal models, auditory cortex neurons show increased spontaneous firing and neural synchrony. In humans, similar hyperactivation in auditory cortex has been displayed with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) or increased connectivity between brain regions has also been shown in tinnitus using fNIRS. However, current fNIRS technology utilizes infrared (IR)-sources and IR-detectors placed on the scalp that restricts (~3 cm depth IR penetration) signal capture to outer cerebral cortex due to skin and skull bone. To overcome this limitation, in this proof of concept study, we adapted fNIRS probes to fit in the external auditory canal (EAC) to physically place IR-probes deeper within the skull thereby extracting neural signals from deeper auditory cortex. Methods Twenty adults with tinnitus and 20 nontinnitus controls listened to periods of silence and broadband noise before and after 5 min of silence to calculate RSFC. Concurrent scalp probes over auditory cortex and an adapted probe placed in the right EAC were utilized. Results For standard probes, left and right auditory cortex in tinnitus showed increased RSFC to each other and to other nonauditory cortices. Interestingly, adapted fNIRS probes showed trends toward increased RSFC. Conclusion While many areas for the adapted probes did not reach significance, these data using a highly innovative and newly created probe adapting fNIRS technology to the EAC substantiates our previously published data in human tinnitus and concurrently validates this technology as a useful and expanded brain imaging modality.

Pain is a complex experience that involves sensation, emotion, and cognition. The subjectivity of the traditional pain measurement tools has expedited the interest in developing neuroimaging techniques to monitor pain objectively. Among noninvasive neuroimaging techniques, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has balanced spatial and temporal resolution; yet, it is portable, quiet, and cost-effective. These features enable fNIRS to image the cortical mechanisms of pain in a clinical environment. In this article, we evaluated pain neuroimaging studies that used the fNIRS technique in the past decade. Starting from the experimental design, we reviewed the regions of interest, probe localization, data processing, and primary findings of these existing fNIRS studies. We also discussed the fNIRS imaging's potential as a brain surveillance technique for pain, in combination with artificial intelligence and extended reality techniques. We concluded that fNIRS is a brain imaging technique with great potential for objective pain assessment in the clinical environment.

Significance: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging brain imaging technique due to its small size, low cost, minimum scanning sonic noise, and portability. Unfortunately, because this technique does not provide neuroanatomical information to accompany the functional data, its data interpretation remains a persistent challenge in fNIRS brain imaging applications. The two most popular approaches for fNIRS anatomical registration are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and three-dimensional (3-D) digitization. MRI scanning yields high-precision registration but reduces the cost-effectiveness and accessibility of fNIRS imaging. Alternatively, the low cost and portable 3-D digitizers are affected by magnetic properties of ambient metal objects, including participant clothing, testing equipment, medical implants, and so forth. Aim: To overcome these obstacles and provide accessible and reliable neuroanatomical registration for fNIRS imaging, we developed and explored a photogrammetry optode registration (POR) method. Approach: The POR method uses a consumer-grade camera to reconstruct a 3-D image of the fNIRS optode-set, including light emitters and detectors, on a participant’s head. This reconstruction process uses a linear-time incremental structure from motion (LTI-SfM) algorithm, based on 100 to 150 digital photos. The POR method then aligns the reconstructed image with an anatomical template of the brain. Results: To validate this method, we tested 22 adult and 19 child participants using the POR method and MRI imaging. The results comparisons suggest on average 55% and 46% overlap across all data channel measurements registered by the two methods in adult and children, respectively. Importantly, this overlap reached 65% and 60% in only the frontal channels. Conclusions: These results suggested that the mismatch in registration was partially due to higher variation in backward optode placement rather than the registration efficacy. Therefore, the photo-based registration method can offer an accessible and reliable approach to neuroanatomical registration of fNIRS as well as other surface-based neuroimaging and neuromodulation methods.

In this study, a high performance thin-layer chromatography/single quadrupole mass spectrometry QDa (HPTLC-QDa) method for robust authentication of Ganoderma lucidum, a popular and valuable herbal medicine, has been developed. This method is simple and practical, which allows direct generation of characteristic mass spectra from the HPTLC plates automatically with the application of in situ solvent desorption interface. The HPTLC silica gel plates were developed with toluene-ethyl formate-formic acid (5 : 5 : 0.2, V/V) and all bands were transferred to QDa system directly in situ using 80% methanol with 0.1% formic acid as desorption solvent. The acquired HPTLC-QDa spectra showed that luminous yellow band b3, containing ganoderic acid B/G/H and ganodeneric acid B, the major active components of Ganoderma, could be found only in G. lucidum and G. lucidum (Antler-shaped), but not in G. sinense and G. applanatum. Moreover, bands b13 and b14 with m/z 475/477 and m/z 475/491/495, respectively, could be detected in G. lucidum (Antler-shaped), but not in G. lucidum, thus allowing simple and robust authentication of G. lucidum with confused species. This method is proved to be simple, practical and reproducible, which can be extended to analyze other herbal medicines.

Motion artifacts are the most significant sources of noise in the context of pediatric brain imaging designs and data analyses, especially in applications of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), in which it can completely affect the quality of the data acquired. Different methods have been developed to correct motion artifacts in fNIRS data, but the relative effectiveness of these methods for data from child and infant subjects (which is often found to be significantly noisier than adult data) remains largely unexplored. The issue is further complicated by the heterogeneity of fNIRS data artifacts. We compared the efficacy of the six most prevalent motion artifact correction techniques with fNIRS data acquired from children participating in a language acquisition task, including wavelet, spline interpolation, principal component analysis, moving average (MA), correlation-based signal improvement, and combination of wavelet and MA. The evaluation of five predefined metrics suggests that the MA and wavelet methods yield the best outcomes. These findings elucidate the varied nature of fNIRS data artifacts and the efficacy of artifact correction methods with pediatric populations, as well as help inform both the theory and practice of optical brain imaging analysis.

Objective Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging noninvasive technology used to study cerebral cortex activity. Being virtually silent and compatible with cochlear implants has helped establish fNIRS as an important tool when investigating auditory cortex as well as cortices involved with hearing and language processing in adults and during child development. With respect to this review article, more recently, fNIRS has also been used to investigate central auditory plasticity following hearing loss and tinnitus or phantom sound perception. Methods Here, we review the currently available literature reporting the use of fNIRS in human studies with cochlear implants and tinnitus to measure human central auditory cortical circuits. We also provide the reader with detailed reviews of the technology and traditional recording paradigms/methods used in these auditory-based studies. Results The purpose of this review article is to summarize theoretical advancements in our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying auditory processes and their plasticity through fNIRS research of human auditory performance with cochlear implantation and plasticity that may contribute to the central percepts of tinnitus. Conclusion fNIRS is an emerging noninvasive brain imaging technology that has wide reaching application that can be applied to human studies involving cochlear implants and tinnitus. Level of evidence N/A.

Emerging research suggests that children's ability to divide is the best predictor of later arithmetic development. Although division is typically taught around grade 3, children much younger than this practice division when sharing and allocating resources (e.g. sharing food). To test the hypothesis that social sharing abilities are linked to the emergence of complex numerical division abilities, we examined sharing and division abilities in adults and children. The first study used functional near infrared spectroscopy to examine the neurocognitive bases of division in adults (N=28; age range: 18-23 years) during a task that evaluated their judgment of proportions in the context of sharing, as well as traditional numerical division tasks. The second study explored the relation between sharing and emergent math abilities in children (N=53; age range: 4-6 years) using the same sharing task and established math measures. Our findings suggest that social sharing activities might engage similar cognitive mechanisms that support mathematical reasoning. The study informs theories of numerical cognition and highlights the importance of examining gaps in how early life activities support cognitive development.

Language acquisition is characterized by progressive use of inflectional morphology marking verb tense and agreement. Linguistic milestones are also linked to left-brain lateralization for language specialization. We used neuroimaging (fNIRS) to investigate how bilingual exposure influences children's cortical organization for processing morpho-syntax. In Study 1, monolinguals and bilinguals (n = 39) completed a grammaticality judgment task that included English sentences with violations in earlier-acquired (verb agreement) and later-acquired (verb tense/agreement) structures. Groups showed similar performance and greater activation in left inferior frontal region (IFG) for later- than earlier-acquired conditions. Bilinguals showed stronger and more restricted left IFG activation. In Study 2, bilinguals completed a comparable Spanish task revealing patterns of left IFG activation similar to English. Taken together, the findings suggest that bilinguals with linguistic competence at parity with monolingual counterparts have a higher degree of cortical specialization for language, likely a result of enriched linguistic experiences.

When a listener hears a word, multiple lexical items may come to mind; for instance, /kaen/ may activate concepts with similar phonological onsets such as candy and candle. Acquisition of two lexicons may increase such linguistic competition. Using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy neuroimaging, we investigate whether bilingualism impacts word processing in the child’s brain. Bilingual and monolingual children (N = 52; ages 7–10) completed a lexical selection task in English, where participants adjudicated phonological competitors (e.g., car/cat vs. car/pen). Children were less accurate and responded more slowly during competing than non-competing items. In doing so, children engaged top-down fronto-parietal regions associated with cognitive control. In comparison to bilinguals, monolinguals showed greater activity in left frontal regions, a difference possibly due to bilinguals’ adaptation for dual-lexicons. These differences provide insight to theories aiming to explain the role of experience on children’s emerging neural networks for lexical selection and language processing.

Data structures permeate many aspects of software engineering, but their associated human cognitive processes are not thoroughly understood. We leverage medical imaging and insights from the psychological notion of spatial ability to decode the neural representations of several fundamental data structures and their manipulations. In a human study involving 76 participants, we examine list, array, tree, and mental rotation tasks using both functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We find a nuanced relationship: data structure and spatial operations use the same focal regions of the brain but to different degrees. They are related but distinct neural tasks. In addition, more difficult computer science problems induce higher cognitive load than do problems of pure spatial reasoning. Finally, while fNIRS is less expensive and more permissive, there are some computing-relevant brain regions that only fMRI can reach.

BACKGROUND For many years, clinicians have been seeking for objective pain assessment solutions via neuroimaging techniques, focusing on the brain to detect human pain. Unfortunately, most of those techniques are not applicable in the clinical environment or lack accuracy. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to test the feasibility of a mobile neuroimaging-based clinical augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) framework, CLARAi, for objective pain detection and also localization direct from the patient’s brain in real time. METHODS Clinical dental pain was triggered in 21 patients by hypersensitive tooth stimulation with 20 consecutive descending cold stimulations (32°C-0°C). We used a portable optical neuroimaging technology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, to gauge their cortical activity during evoked acute clinical pain. The data were decoded using a neural network (NN)–based AI algorithm to classify hemodynamic response data into pain and no-pain brain states in real time. We tested the performance of several networks (NN with 7 layers, 6 layers, 5 layers, 3 layers, recurrent NN, and long short-term memory network) upon reorganized data features on pain diction and localization in a simulated real-time environment. In addition, we also tested the feasibility of transmitting the neuroimaging data to an AR device, HoloLens, in the same simulated environment, allowing visualization of the ongoing cortical activity on a 3-dimensional brain template virtually plotted on the patients’ head during clinical consult. RESULTS The artificial neutral network (3-layer NN) achieved an optimal classification accuracy at 80.37% (126,000/156,680) for pain and no pain discrimination, with positive likelihood ratio (PLR) at 2.35. We further explored a 3-class localization task of left/right side pain and no-pain states, and convolutional NN-6 (6-layer NN) achieved highest classification accuracy at 74.23% (1040/1401) with PLR at 2.02. CONCLUSIONS Additional studies are needed to optimize and validate our prototype CLARAi framework for other pains and neurologic disorders. However, we presented an innovative and feasible neuroimaging-based AR/AI concept that can potentially transform the human brain into an objective target to visualize and precisely measure and localize pain in real time where it is most needed: in the doctor’s office. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPOR RR1-10.2196/13594

This study explored the impact of infant temperament and maternal stress on the development of the infant medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) among sixteen 6–8-month-old infants. Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to measure activation of the infant mPFC in response to angry, happy, and sad faces. Infant temperament and dimensions of maternal stress were measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire and the Parenting Stress Index Respectively. Infants with high negative emotionality demonstrated increased mPFC activation in association with all emotion face conditions. Negative emotionality moderated the effect of total maternal stress on mPFC activation to angry and sad faces. Mother-infant dysfunctional interaction was related to increased mPFC activation associated with happy faces, supporting the “novelty hypothesis”, in which the mPFC responds more strongly to unique experiences. Therefore, this study provides additional evidence that infant temperament and the quality of the mother-infant relationship influence the development of the mPFC and how infants process emotions.

Objective Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging noninvasive technology used to study cerebral cortex activity. Being virtually silent and compatible with cochlear implants has helped establish fNIRS as an important tool when investigating auditory cortex as well as cortices involved with hearing and language processing in adults and during child development. With respect to this review article, more recently, fNIRS has also been used to investigate central auditory plasticity following hearing loss and tinnitus or phantom sound perception. Methods Here, we review the currently available literature reporting the use of fNIRS in human studies with cochlear implants and tinnitus to measure human central auditory cortical circuits. We also provide the reader with detailed reviews of the technology and traditional recording paradigms/methods used in these auditory‐based studies. Results The purpose of this review article is to summarize theoretical advancements in our understanding of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying auditory processes and their plasticity through fNIRS research of human auditory performance with cochlear implantation and plasticity that may contribute to the central percepts of tinnitus. Conclusion fNIRS is an emerging noninvasive brain imaging technology that has wide reaching application that can be applied to human studies involving cochlear implants and tinnitus. Level of Evidence N/A

This study used an emerging brain imaging technique, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to investigate functional brain activation and connectivity that modulates sometimes traumatic pain experience in a clinical setting. Hemodynamic responses were recorded at bilateral somatosensory (S1) and prefrontal cortices (PFCs) from 12 patients with dentin hypersensitivity in a dental chair before, during, and after clinical pain. Clinical dental pain was triggered with 20 consecutive descending cold stimulations (32° to 0°C) to the affected teeth. We used a partial least squares path modeling framework to link patients' clinical pain experience with recorded hemodynamic responses at sequential stages and baseline resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). Hemodynamic responses at PFC/S1 were sequentially elicited by expectation, cold detection, and pain perception at a high-level coefficient (coefficients: 0.92, 0.98, and 0.99, P < 0.05). We found that the pain ratings were positively affected only at a moderate level of coefficients by such sequence of functional activation (coefficient: 0.52, P < 0.05) and the baseline PFC-S1 RSFC (coefficient: 0.59, P < 0.05). Furthermore, when the dental pain had finally subsided, the PFC increased its functional connection with the affected S1 orofacial region contralateral to the pain stimulus and, in contrast, decreased with the ipsilateral homuncular S1 regions ( P < 0.05). Our study indicated for the first time that patients' clinical pain experience in the dental chair can be predicted concomitantly by their baseline functional connectivity between S1 and PFC, as well as their sequence of ongoing hemodynamic responses. In addition, this linked cascade of events had immediate after-effects on the patients' brain connectivity, even when clinical pain had already ceased. Our findings offer a better understating of the ongoing impact of affective and sensory experience in the brain before, during, and after clinical dental pain.

Previous work shows that as compared to European Americans, Asians are more holistic (or less focused) in perceptual processing. Drawing on this evidence, we expected that extra attention control would be recruited to perform focused processing for Asians and holistic processing for European Americans. Eight Asian American and 13 European American young adults judged whether a given framed-line was the same in length as the framed-line shown on the previous trial on the basis of either an absolute or relative criterion. Their brain activities were monitored with functional near infrared spectroscopy. As predicted, Asian Americans showed an increased activation in the parietal regions during the absolute (vs. relative) task, whereas European Americans showed an increased activation in the same regions during the relative (vs. absolute) task. No comparable pattern was observed for performance. The current work provides further evidence for compensatory attention that is engaged during culturally non-preferred tasks.

Objectives The phylogenetic relationships between Chinese Leishmania strains were investigated using lack ( Leishmania homolog of receptors for activated protein kinase C) gene sequences, and the power of this gene was assessed for understanding the epidemiology and population genetics of Leishmania . Methods The lack gene sequences from Leishmania isolates were sequenced after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification. Sequence alignment was performed and a phylogenetic tree was created using the MEGA 5.0 software program. Results Sequences of 850 bp were analyzed for each of the Leishmania strains collected from different locations in China, and minor differences in sequences were noted between the strains. Four distinct groups formed according to differences in the sequences of the lack gene. Group I consisted of 12 isolates from Shandong, Xinjiang, Gansu and Sichuan. These strains are part of the Leishmania donovani complex and are pathogenic to humans and canines. Group II included six isolates from Xinjiang and a reference strain, Leishmania turanica . Group III contained two isolates (one from a sand fly in Xinjiang and one from a rodent in Inner Mongolia) and they were identified as Leishmania gerbilli . Finally, group IV contained a strain from a sand fly in Xinjiang and a strain from a lizard in Inner Mongolia, and these strains were found to be Sauroleishmania . Conclusion The Chinese Leishmania isolates formed four groups based on differences in the sequences of the lack gene, and this result is consistent with previous studies. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that the Leishmania isolates from China are more complicated than previously thought. There is consensus between genetic clustering and identification using classical methods, which means that the lack gene yields polymorphic information that could be used for genotyping Leishmania isolates.

Bilingualism is a typical linguistic experience, yet relatively little is known about its impact on children's cognitive and brain development. Theories of bilingualism suggest that early dual-language acquisition can improve children's cognitive abilities, specifically those relying on frontal lobe functioning. While behavioral findings present much conflicting evidence, little is known about its effects on children's frontal lobe development. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the findings suggest that Spanish-English bilingual children (n = 13, ages 7-13) had greater activation in left prefrontal cortex during a non-verbal attentional control task relative to age-matched English monolinguals. In contrast, monolinguals (n = 14) showed greater right prefrontal activation than bilinguals. The present findings suggest that early bilingualism yields significant changes to the functional organization of children's prefrontal cortex for attentional control and carry implications for understanding how early life experiences impact cognition and brain development.

A dental appointment commonly prompts fear of a painful experience, yet we have never fully understood how our brains react to the expectation of imminent tooth pain once in a dental chair. In our study, 21 patients with hypersensitive teeth were tested using nonpainful and painful stimuli in a clinical setting. Subjects were tested in a dental chair using functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cortical activity during a stepwise cold stimulation of a hypersensitive tooth, as well as nonpainful control stimulation on the same tooth. Patients’ sensory-discriminative and emotional-cognitive cortical regions were studied through the transition of a neutral to a painful stimulation. In the putative somatosensory cortex contralateral to the stimulus, 2 well-defined hemodynamic peaks were detected in the homuncular orofacial region: the first peak during the nonpainful phase and a second peak after the pain threshold was reached. Moreover, in the upper-left and lower-right prefrontal cortices, there was a significant active hemodynamic response in only the first phase, before the pain. Subsequently, the same prefrontal cortical areas deactivated after a painful experience had been reached. Our study indicates for the first time that pain perception and expectation elicit different hemodynamic cortical responses in a dental clinical setting.

This work describes a simple method to yield large amounts of the isolate MHOM/CN/90/SC10H2 amastigotes-like forms in axenic cultures using promastigotes as the starting population. The isolate MHOM/CN/90/SC10H2, used in this study, belongs to an undescribed species of Leishmania endemic to hill foci in China. The method describes induced extracellular amastigote transformation of this isolate. The rounded parasite obtained in axenic culture was morphologically similar, even at the ultrastructural level, to intracellular amastigotes. Moreover, the axenic amastigotes remained viable as verified by the stage-specific genes (gp46 and p4 genes) with RT-PCR. A 70–80 kDa protein was recognized by polyclonal antibody HRP-IgG only in axenic-derived amastigotes and not in promastigotes.

Background Leishmania species belong to the family Trypanosomatidae and cause leishmaniasis, a geographically widespread disease that infects humans and other vertebrates. This disease remains endemic in China. Due to the large geographic area and complex ecological environment, the taxonomic position and phylogenetic relationship of Chinese Leishmania isolates remain uncertain. A recent internal transcribed spacer 1 and cytochrome oxidase II phylogeny of Chinese Leishmania isolates has challenged some aspects of their traditional taxonomy as well as cladistics hypotheses of their phylogeny. The current study was designed to provide further disease background and sequence analysis. Methods We systematically analyzed 50 cytochrome b (cyt b) gene sequences of 19 isolates (16 from China, 3 from other countries) sequenced after polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a special primer for cyt b as well as 31 sequences downloaded from GenBank. After alignment, the data were analyzed using the maximum parsimony, Bayesian and netwok methods. Results Sequences of six haplotypes representing 10 Chinese isolates formed a monophyletic group and clustered with Leishmania tarentolae. The isolates GS1, GS7, XJ771 of this study from China clustered with other isolates of Leishmania donovani complex. The isolate JS1 was a sister to Leishmania tropica, which represented an L. tropica complex instead of clustering with L. donovani complex or with the other 10 Chinese isolates. The isolates KXG-2 and GS-GER20 formed a monophyletic group with Leishmania turanica from central Asia. In the different phylogenetic trees, all of the Chinese isolates occurred in at least four groups regardless of geographic distribution. Conclusions The undescribed Leishmania species of China, which are clearly causative agents of canine leishmaniasis and human visceral leishmaniasis and are related to Sauroleishmania, may have evolved from a common ancestral parasite that came from the Americas and may have split off earlier than the other old world Leishmania. Our results also suggest the following: the isolates GS7, GS1 and XJ771 occur as part of the L. donovani complex; the JS1 isolate is L. tropica; and the isolate GS-GER20 identified as Leishmania gerbilli is close to KXG-2 which is L. turanica.

The reduction of trial-to-trial variability (TTV) in task-evoked functional near-infrared spectroscopy signals by considering the correlated low-frequency spontaneous fluctuations that account for the resting-state functional connectivity in the brain is investigated. A resting-state session followed by a task-state session of a right hand finger-tapping task has been performed on five subjects. Significant ipsilateral and bilateral resting-state functional connectivity has been detected at the subjects' motor cortex using the seed correlation method. The correlation coefficients obtained during the resting-state are used to reduce the TTV in the signals measured during the task sessions. The results suggest that correlated spontaneous low-frequency fluctuations contribute significantly to the TTV in the task evoked fNIRS signals.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is emerging optical brain imaging technique. It measures the hemodynamic changes that effectively reflect the brain states. However, the fNIRS signal analysis is sensitive to the trial-to-trial variability (TTV), and the source of the TTV remains elusive. Previous functional magnetic resonance image (fMRI) study suggested that the TTV can be attributed to spontaneous low frequency hemodynamic fluctuation in fMRI signal. Meanwhile, recent fNIRS studies confirm that the spontaneous fluctuation in fNIRS signal can be robustly detected by functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). In this paper, we investigate the relationship between TTV and the spontaneous fluctuations in fNIRS signal. The subject is asked to complete a right finger tapping experiment. Independent component analysis as well as functional connectivity is used to reduce the TTV in the finger tapping experiment. The result suggests that the low frequency spontaneous fluctuation contribute significantly to the TTV in fNIRS signal.

Deception involves complex neural processes in the brain. Different techniques have been used to study and understand brain mechanisms during deception. Moreover, efforts have been made to develop schemes that can detect and differentiate deception and truth-telling. In this paper, a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based online brain deception decoding framework is developed. Deploying dual-wavelength fNIRS, we interrogate 16 locations in the forehead when eight able-bodied adults perform deception and truth-telling scenarios separately. By combining preprocessed oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin signals, we develop subject-specific classifiers using the support vector machine. Deception and truth-telling states are classified correctly in seven out of eight subjects. A control experiment is also conducted to verify the deception-related hemodynamic response. The average classification accuracy is over 83.44% from these seven subjects. The obtained result suggests that the applicability of fNIRS as a brain imaging technique for online deception detection is very promising.

Leishmaniasis remains endemic in China, especially in the west and northwest frontier regions in central Asia. Epidemic outbreaks of both visceral and cutaneous forms of the disease have become a serious concern in view of such events occurring in neighboring countries. In the present study, we have begun to characterize available parasites as an initial step in understanding the epidemiology of leishmaniasis in central Asia. Nineteen Leishmania isolates collected since the 1950s from epidemiologically different foci in China were separated into five genotypes (Groups I-V) based on their polymorphisms in both kinetoplast (kDNA) and nuclear (nDNA) DNAs. Both kDNA and nDNA are conserved in Group I, which consists of six isolates, i.e., five cases of human kala-azar and one case of canine leishmaniasis isolated from three distant foci more than 30 years apart. In contrast, both kDNA and nDNA are heterogeneous in Group II, consisting of 10 isolates scattered in the plain area from the eastern coast to the western desert. This group includes five kala-azar cases, one post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis case, two sand fly isolates, and two canine isolates. The remaining three groups (III-V), two from great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) and one from a kala-azar case, differ among themselves and from the aforementioned groups. Groups I, II/III, IV, and V contain isolates that have been recognized epidemiologically or typed isoenzymatically as L. donovani s.l., L. infantum s.l., L. turinica, and L. gerbilli, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Deception involves complex neural processes and correlates in the brain. Different techniques have been used to study and understand brain mechanisms during deception. Moreover, efforts have been made to develop schemes that can detect and differentiate the deception and truth telling. In this paper, a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) based online brain deception decoding framework is developed. Deploying a dual-wavelength functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we interrogated sixteen sites around the forehead locations while eight able-bodied adults performed in separately deception scenarios and truth-telling scenarios. With the combination of preprocessed oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin signals, we developed subject-specific classifiers using the support vector machine.

To investigate the immunogenicity of recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1-amastigote with Leishmania donovani amastigote gene.Eighteen female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. Mice in experimental group and control group were intramuscularly injected with 50 microg recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1-amastigote and blank plasmid vector pcDNA3.1(+), respectively, and then received equivalent dose of plamid after 2 weeks. On days 7, 14, and 21 after the second immunization, serum samples were collected from 3 mice each group. The mice were then sacrificed, spleens were removed and splenocytes were collected. Serum antibody level was determined by indirect ELISA. Splenocyte proliferation responses and cytotoxicity of spleen-derived lymphocytes were analyzed by MTT colorimetry after stimulation with ConA. Level of IFN-gamma, IL-2 and IL-4 in the splenocyte culture supernatants was determined by double antibody sandwich ELISA.On days 7, 14, and 21 after the second immunization, specific IgG antibody (more than 1:640) was found in experimental group, but not in the control (P0.01); stimulation index (SI) of spleen cells in experimental group (428 +/- 0.51, 5.01-0.60, and 4.39 +/- 0.50) was higher than that of control group (P0.01); the level of IFN-gamma [(42.06 +/- 4.26), (66.02 +/- 6.02), and (58.29 +/- 3.75) pg/ml] and IL-2 [(38.21 +/- 5.11), (64.79 +/- 8.67), and (52.69 +/- 7.15) pg/ml] in splenocyte culture supernatants of experimental group was higher than that of control group (P0.01); IL-4 was not found in the two groups; cytotoxicity of spleen-derived lymphocytes in experimental group [(42.20 +/- 5.96)%, (63.66 +/- 5.44)%, and (52.24 +/- 4.56)%] was stronger than that of control (P0.01).The recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1-amastigote can induce specific humoral and Th1 type cellular immune responses in mice.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) can detect two different kinds of signals from the human brain: the hemodynamic response (slow) and the neuronal response (fast). This paper explores a nonlinear aspect in the tactile-stimulus-evoked neuronal optical response over a NIRS time series (light intensity variation). The existence of the fast optical responses (FORs) over the time series recorded in stimulus sessions is confirmed by event-related averaging. The chaos levels of the NIRS time series recorded both in stimulus and in rest sessions are then identified according to the estimated largest Lyapunov exponent. The obtained results ascertain that stimulus-evoked neuronal optical responses can be detected in the somatosensory cortex using continuous-wave NIRS equipment. Further, the results strongly suggest that the chaos level can be used to recognize the FORs in NIRS time series and, thereby, the state of the pertinent brain activity.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that recently has been used to measure changes in cerebral blood oxygenation associated with brain activity. To date, there is no standard method for analyzing NIRS data, especially for real-time brain imaging applications. In this work, a novel real-time NIRS signal analysis framework based on the general linear model (GLM) and the Kalman estimator was devised. A set of simulated data was processed using the proposed framework. The results so obtained suggested that the method can effectively locate brain activation areas in real-time, thereby demonstrating its potential for real-time NIRS-based brain imaging applications.

Leishmaniasis is a geographically widespread disease, caused by protozoan flagellates of the genus Leishmania. This disease still remains endemic in China, especially in the west and northwest frontier regions. To date, the phylogenetic relationships among Chinese Leishmania isolates are still unclear, and the possible taxonomic diversity remains to be established. In this study, the ITS1-5.8S fragments of ten isolates collected from different foci in China were determined. To infer the phylogenetic relationships among them, seven sequences of Chinese Leishmania isolates retrieved from GenBank were also included. Both parsimony and Bayesian analyses reveal an unexpected but strongly supported clade comprising eight newly determined isolates, which is sister to other members of subgenus Leishmania. In combination with genetic distance analysis, this provides evidence of the occurrence of an undescribed species of Leishmania. Our results also suggest that (1) the isolate IPHL/CN/77/XJ771 from Bachu County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is not Leishmania infantum but Leishmania donovani; (2) the status referring to an isolate MRHO/CN/88/KXG-2 from a great gerbil in Karamay as Leishmania turanica, formerly based on multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, is recognized; (3) an earlier finding demonstrating the L. donovani identity of isolate MHOM/CN/80/801 from Kashi city is corroborated; (4) the three isolates from eastern Jiashi County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, causing desert type of zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (see Wang et al., Parasitol Int (in press), 2010), belong to L. donovani instead of L. infantum. In addition, the results of this study make an important contribution to understanding the heterogeneity and relationships of Chinese Leishmania isolates, further indicating that the isolates from China may have had a more complex evolutionary history than expected.

To clone and express the avastin gene of two Leishmania donovani isolates from Sichuan Province of China.Avastin gene was amplified from nuclear DNA of two L.donovani isolates, cloned into pcDNA3.1(+), and sequenced by the dideoxy chain termination. NIH3T3 cell was transfected by recombinant plasmid. Transient expression of avastin gene was detected by immunofluoresence and stable expression was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot.Avastin gene of both isolates was 552 bp. Sequence analysis showed that the similarity was 86% between the two isolates. A high green fluorescence was found on the cell membrane and inside the cell. The NIH3T3 cell was transfected by the recombinant plasmid successfully. Avastin gene was obtained by RT-PCR from the transfected NIH3T3 cells. Western blot analysis showed that there was a protein about Mr 20 000 in lysate of the transfected NIH3T3 cells, indicating that the avastin gene was expressed in the cells.Avastin gene of the two L.donovani isolates has been cloned and the gene can be expressed stably in the NIH3T3 cell.

To construct recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid of amastin gene of Leishmania Donovani and detect expression of the gene in NIH3T3 cells.Amastin gene was amplified from nuclear DNA of Leishmania Donovani isolates and cloned into an eukaryotic expression vector pcDNA3.1(+). The recombinant plasmid was named pcDNA3.1-amastin. NIH3T3 cell was transfected by pcDNA3.1-amastin. Transient and stable expression of amastin gene were detected by immunofluoresence and RT-PCR.It was found that there was high green fluorescence on the cell membrane and inside the cell. It showed that NIH3T3 cell was transfected by pcDNA3.1-amastin successfully.A recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmid of amastin gene of Leishmania Donovani was successfully constructed, and can be expressed stably in the NIH3T3 cells.

Motion artifacts are the most significant sources of noise in the context of pediatric brain imaging designs and data analyses, especially in applications of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), in which it can completely affect the quality of the data acquired. Different methods have been developed to correct motion artifacts in fNIRS data, but the relative effectiveness of these methods for data from child and infant subjects (which is often found to be significantly noisier than adult data) remains largely unexplored. The issue is further complicated by the heterogeneity of fNIRS data artifacts. We compared the efficacy of the six most prevalent motion artifact correction techniques with fNIRS data acquired from children participating in a language acquisition task, including wavelet, spline interpolation, principal component analysis, moving average (MA), correlation-based signal improvement, and combination of wavelet and MA. The evaluation of five predefined metrics suggests that the MA and wavelet methods yield the best outcomes. These findings elucidate the varied nature of fNIRS data artifacts and the efficacy of artifact correction methods with pediatric populations, as well as help inform both the theory and practice of optical brain imaging analysis.