Bundled-optode implementation for 3D imaging in functional near-infrared spectroscopy

The paper presents a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based bundled-optode method for detection of the changes of oxy-hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxy-hemoglobin (HbR) concentrations. fNIRS with 32 optodes is utilized to measure five healthy male subjects' brain-hemodynamic responses to arithmetic tasks. Specifically, the coordinates of 256 voxels in the three-dimensional (3D) volume are computed according to the known probe geometry. The mean path length factor in the Beer-Lambert equation is estimated as a function of the emitter-detector distance, which is utilized for computation of the absorption coefficient. The mean values of HbO and HbR obtained from the absorption coefficient are then applied for construction of a 3D fNIRS image. Our results show that the proposed method, as compared with the conventional approach, can detect brain activity with higher spatial resolution. This method can be extended for 3D fNIRS imaging in real-time applications.