Prefrontal inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity measured with diffuse correlation spectroscopy

Abstract

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) was used to investigate the inter-hemispheric resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC). The spontaneous activity was recorded for 10 minutes from the prefrontal cortex on 21 healthy subjects (23.7 ± 1.2 years old). From the temporal intensity autocorrelation function g2(τ), the relative cerebral blood flow (CBF) could be extracted, while from the light intensity the relative cerebral blood volume (CBV) could be obtained. The CBF- and CBV-RSFC were then evaluated by the Pearson correlation coefficient between the two hemispheres. The results demonstrated the CBF- and CBV-RSFC between the two hemispheres. The group average was 0.60 ± 0.12 and 0.71 ± 0.09 for CBF- and CBV-RSFC, respectively. In addition, a moderate correlation between the temporal fluctuation of CBF and CBV was also observed, implying the two hemodynamic variables could provide different information in resting-state. Using DCS to simultaneously measure CBF- and CBV- RSFC might be helpful for better understanding of functional networks in the brain.