POSTER PRESENTATION Open Access Optical imaging of motor cortical activation using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an optical imaging technique that allows real-time monitor-ing of the oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) and deoxy-hemo-globin (deoxy-Hb) levels in brain tissues in a noninvasive fashion [1,4,6]. The characteristic absorption spectra of oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb recorded on the scalp can be used to detect the oxygen demands of the under-lying brain tissues in the cerebral cortex. This allows real-time detection of brain activation based on meta-bolic events (neural hemodynamics). Brain imaging using fNIRS has many advantages over fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), as it can detect changes in both oxy- and deoxy-Hb levels simultaneously, whereas an increase in fMRI BOLD (blood-oxygen level dependent) signal only accounts for a decrease i