fNIR for cognitive assessment following traumatic brain injury

Poster presented at Biomedical Technology Showcase 2006, Philadelphia, PA. Retrieved 18 Aug 2006 from http://www.biomed.drexel.edu/new04/Content/Biomed_Tech_Showcase/Poster_Presentations/Izzetoglu.pdf.Traumatic brain injury (TBI) often involves serious cognitive complications. Recovery is primarily assessed through behavioral observation, which provides little information about changes at the brain level. In order to investigate functional brain activity during everyday life tasks, this research will employ a safe, affordable and portable neuroimaging modality: functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). The study is a preliminary establishment of fNIRS as a clinically useful tool in TBI neuro-rehabilitation. First, fNIRS measures will be tested for their ability to discriminate between TBI patients and healthy controls. Then, fNIRS measures will be compared to performance on traditional cognitive tasks and EEG analyses