Abstract
.Significance: Our study reveals that frontal cerebral oxygenation asymmetry (FCOA), i.e. a difference in the oxygenation between the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC), is a real phenomenon in healthy human subjects at rest.Aim: To investigate FCOA, we performed a study with 134 healthy right-handed subjects with the systemic physiology augmented functional near infrared spectroscopy (SPA-fNIRS) approach.Approach: Subjects were measured 2 to 4 times on different days resulting in an unprecedented number of 518 single measurements of the absolute values of tissue oxygen saturation () and total hemoglobin concentration ([tHb]) of the right and left PFC. Measurements were performed with frequency-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the cardiorespiratory parameters were measured simultaneously.Results: We found that (i) subjects showed an FCOA (higher on the right PFC), but not for tHb; (ii) intrasubject variability was excellent for both and tHb, and fair for FCOA; (iii) correlated significantly with blood concentration, [tHb] with heart rate, respiration rate (RR), and the pulse–respiration quotient (PRQ), and FCOA with RR and PRQ; (iv) FCOA and were dependent on season and time of day, respectively; (v) FCOA was negatively correlated with the room temperature; and (vi) and tHb were not correlated with the subjects mood but with their chronotype, whereas FCOA was not dependent on the chronotype.Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that FCOA is real, and it provides unique insights into this remarkable phenomenon.
Highlights
Our own preliminary measurements suggested that cerebral oxygenation differed between the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC) in healthy human adults at rest.[1]
We found that frontal cerebral oxygenation asymmetry (FCOA) showed the same trend of seasonal changes for both female and male groups and was higher in autumn and winter compared to spring and summer
We found higher R-PFC activity associated with more depression in autumn and winter compared to spring and summer
Summary
Our own preliminary measurements suggested that cerebral oxygenation differed between the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC) in healthy human adults at rest.[1]. Frontal EEG asymmetry (FEA) activity has been explained using the approach-withdrawal model suggesting that there are two different types of motivation.[9,10] The approach motivation signifies the propensity to move toward the desired stimulus and is associated with a higher left frontal activity, whereas the withdrawal/avoidance motivation indicates a propensity to move or stay away from an undesired stimulus and is associated with higher right frontal activity.[11,12,13] only a few studies on the asymmetry of brain tissue oxygenation and metabolism have been performed so far.[1,14] This prompted us to investigate this fascinating phenomenon in many subjects using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)
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