The application of fNIRS for measuring behavior. 

Presenter

Artinis medical systems

Content

Currently, wearable fNIRS devices play an important part in many cognitive research fields, because it allows measuring brain activity during real-life situations without restrictions. Most behavioral research focuses on using electrophysiological measurements: this is problematic because our daily environment is full of electromagnetic noise, and electrophysiological measurements are usually highly susceptible to movement artifacts. As our wearable fNIRS devices suffer less from such artifacts, they are perfectly suited for providing robust data not only in this scenario, but also many other real-life scenarios.  

During the tutorial, we will discuss the use of fNIRS within behavioral science, geriatric, pediatric, cognitive neuroscience and entertainment research, including research on mice, sheep and even seals. Then, we will show how Artinis wearable fNIRS devices and the latest software can robustly measure brain activity, and how it can work together with EEG, eye tracking and the Noldus software (The Observer XT). Additionally, we will share our knowledge on how to work with the devices: how to obtain good quality data, how to analyse data, and how to set up your research paradigm in the most effective way possible.  

Overall, participants will learn how to set up a robust and reliable experimental paradigm using our fNIRS devices, what features of the devices are suitable for specific research goals and environments, and how to cope with movement artifacts. They will also learn how to use the latest software from Artinis. 

Examples of research that will be discussed 

• Scholkmann F, Holper L, Wolf U, Wolf M. A new methodical approach in neuroscience: assessing inter-personal brain coupling using functional near-infrared imaging (fNIRI) hyperscanning. Front Hum Neurosci. 2013 Nov 27;7:813. 
• Belluscio V, Stuart S, Bergamini E, Vannozzi G, Mancini M. The Association between Prefrontal Cortex Activity and Turning Behavior in People with and without Freezing of Gait. Neuroscience. 2019 Jul 19. pii: S0306-4522(19)30508-1. 
• Radel, R., Tempest, G. D., & Brisswalter, J. (2018). The long and winding road: Effects of exercise intensity and type upon sustained attention. Physiology & Behavior. 
• Ferreri L, Bigand E, Bard P, Bugaiska A. The influence of music on prefrontal cortex during episodic encoding and retrieval of verbal information: a multichannel fNIRS study. Behavioural Neurology, 11 May 2015. 
• Zhang Z; Yang H; Cao Y; Xu F; Jiang J; Jiao X. The effect of mental fatigue on sustained attention: an fNIRS study. Proc. SPIE. 10245, International Conference on Innovative Optical Health Science, 102450G. (January 05, 2017) 
• Khan MJ, Hong KS, Naseer N, Bhutta MR. Multi-Decision Detection Using EEG-NIRS Based Hybrid Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). OHBM 2014, Berlin. 
• Tempest GD, Radel R. Put on your (fNIRS) thinking cap: Frontopolar activation during augmented state creativity. Behav Brain Res. 2019 Nov 5;373:112082. 
• Vergotte, G., Perrey, S., Muthuraman, M., Janaqi, S., & Torre, K. (2018). Concurrent changes of brain functional connectivity and motor variability when adapting to task constraints. Frontiers in Physiology, 9, 909.
• Carrieri M, Petracca A, Lancia S, Basso Moro S, Brigadoi S, Spezialetti M, Ferrari M, Placidi G, Quaresima V. Prefrontal Cortex Activation Upon a Demanding Virtual Hand-Controlled Task: A New Frontier for Neuroergonomics. Front Hum Neurosci. 2016 Feb 16;10:53. 
• J. C. McKnight, K. A. Bennett, M. Bronkhorst, D. J. F. Russell, S. Balfour, R. Milne, M. Bivins, S. E. W. Moss, W. Colier, A. J. Hall, D. Thompson. 2018. Shining new light on mammalian diving physiology using wearable near-infrared spectroscopy. PLOS biology. Published: June 18, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000306