Quantitative evaluation of cognitive function based on the event-related fNIRS measurement

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to establish a quantitative evaluation method of cognitive functions of brain by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measurement based on the event related design experiments to reduce artifacts of skin blood flow due to body movements. We measured fNIRS signals while subjects were attending a Posner task to control their attention foci, and analyzed event-related activations which relate to attention allocation. The results show that activations occur around the temporal parietal junction when giving interrupt processing to detect the targets presented at unpredicted places. These results consistent with a result of conventional fMRI study. On the other hand, the effects of interrupt reduce under the condition that the cue has multiple meanings. These results suggest that the higher-order brain functions like attention are able to be evaluated from fNIRS measurement signal based on the event-related design experiments.