Abstract
Resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a potential technique for the study of brain functional connectivity (FC) and networks in children. However, the necessary fNIRS scanning duration required to map accurate and stable functional brain connectivity and graph theory metrics in the resting-state brain activity remains largely unknown. Here, we acquired resting-state fNIRS imaging data from 53 healthy children to provide the first empirical evidence for the minimum imaging time required to obtain accurate and stable FC and graph theory metrics of brain network activity (e.g., nodal efficiency and network global and local efficiency). Our results showed that FC was accurately and stably achieved after 7.0-min fNIRS imaging duration, whereas the necessary scanning time for accurate and stable network measures was a minimum of 2.5 min at low network thresholds. These quantitative results provide direct evidence for the choice of the resting-state fNIRS imaging time in children in brain FC and network topology study. The current study also demonstrates that these methods are feasible and cost-effective in the application of time-constrained infants and critically ill children.
Highlights
Resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy is an emerging area of interest and is currently attracting increasing attention as a promising imaging tool for the study of resting-state brain function[1]
When compared to the relatively longer 10.0-min data acquisition duration, these results revealed a significant (P < 0.001) and strong correlation across each functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signal duration. This suggests that the short fNIRS signal acquisition duration, i.e., 1.0 min, can result in functional connectivity (FC) maps with as high an accuracy as those calculated with a 10.0-min scanning duration
We found that accuracy of FC was achieved after 1.0 min of fNIRS imaging duration (Fig. 2b), whereas the FC was stabilized after 7.0 min of fNIRS imaging acquisition (Fig. 2c)
Summary
Resting-state functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging area of interest and is currently attracting increasing attention as a promising imaging tool for the study of resting-state brain function[1]. Relative to the widely used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the fNIRS technique displays some unique advantages such as high portability, quietness, data acquisition in a natural environment and high robustness to head motion[4] These special advantages are facilitating the use of fNIRS as a great potential tool for human brain function studies in children with normal neural development or a clinical diseased state[5]. To facilitate the use of the fNIRS-based imaging technique in the study of brain networks in children, one critical step is to determine the minimum data acquisition duration that is capable of providing accurate and stable functional brain connectivity and graph theory metrics. We evaluated the influence of fNIRS imaging time on the accuracy and stability of brain functional connections and graph theory metrics of the brain connectivity network
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