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Time-Resolved Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging of the Adult Human Brain

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Book cover Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXXI

Abstract

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) of the human brain is aiming at the non-invasive determination of concentration changes of oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin in the cortex. However, it usually relies on the assumption of spatially homogeneous absorption changes. To overcome this limitation we performed instrumental and methodological developments of time-resolved NIRS with the aim to achieve depth resolution. We present our recently developed time-domain near-infrared brain imager based on picosecond diode lasers and time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) which can be used at the bedside. To achieve depth localization of absorption changes we analysed statistical moments (integral, mean time of flight and variance) of measured time-of-flight distributions of diffusely reflected photons. In particular, variance has a selective sensitivity to deep absorptions changes and provides a suitable representation of cerebral signals. The separation of cerebral and extracerebral changes of hemoglobin concentrations is demonstrated for a motor stimulation experiment.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour (BMWA VI A2-12/03) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF 01 GO 0208, Berlin Neuroimaging Center).

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Correspondence to Heidrun Wabnitz .

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Wabnitz, H., Moeller, M., Liebert, A., Obrig, H., Steinbrink, J., Macdonald, R. (2010). Time-Resolved Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging of the Adult Human Brain. In: Takahashi, E., Bruley, D. (eds) Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXXI. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 662. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1241-1_20

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