label: url

en: Spatial distribution of hemoglobin signals from superficial layers in the forehead during a verbal-fluency task.

en: Journal of Biomedical Optics

ja: Journal of Biomedical Optics


en: Emotional discrimination of unpleasant picture stimuli: timing in human anterior ventral prefrontal cortex and amygdala

en: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience

ja: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience


en: A coupling model of light propagation based on the radiative transfer and diffusion equations

en: AIP Conference Proceedings

ja: AIP Conference Proceedings


en: Numerical modeling of photon propagation in biological tissue based on the radiative transfer equation


en: Hybrid model for photon propagation in random media based on the radiative transfer and diffusion equations

en: Progress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE


en: Broad cortical activation in response to tactile stimulation in newborns.

en: Tactile sensation, which is one of the earliest developing sensory systems, is very important in the perception of an individual's body and the surrounding physical environment, especially in newborns. However, currently, only little is known about the response of a newborn's brain to tactile sensation. The objective of the present study was to determine the response of a newborn's brain to tactile sensation and to compare the brain responses to various sensory stimuli. Ten healthy newborns, 2-9 days after birth, were enrolled. A multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy system was used to measure brain responses. The probe array covered broad cortical areas, including the parietal, temporal, and occipital areas. We measured cortical hemodynamic changes in response to three different types of stimuli: tactile, auditory, and visual. Activated areas were analyzed by t-tests, and the number of activated channels among the three different stimuli was compared by χ²-tests. The results showed that when the brain responded to each type of stimulation, the corresponding primary sensory area was activated, and tactile stimuli induced broader areas of brain activation than the other two types of stimuli (auditory or visual). Thus, broad brain areas, including the temporal and parietal areas, were activated by tactile stimuli in early newborn periods. These results suggest that there are differences in newborns' reactions to various types of sensory stimuli, which may reflect the importance of tactile sensation in the early newborn period.

en: NeuroReport

ja: NeuroReport


en: Development of double density whole brain fNIRS with EEG system for brain machine interface.

en: Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc

ja: Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc


en: Cerebral hemodynamic responses induced by specific acupuncture sensations during needling at trigger points: a near-infrared spectroscopic study.

en: Acupuncture stimulation at specific points, or trigger points (TPs), elicits sensations called "de-qi". De-qi sensations relate to the clinical efficacy of the treatment. However, it is neither clear whether de-qi sensations are associated with TPs, nor clear whether acupuncture effects on brain activity are associated with TPs or de-qi. We recorded cerebral hemodynamic responses during acupuncture stimulation at TPs and non-TPs by functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The acupuncture needle was inserted into both TPs and non-TPs within the right extensor muscle in the forearm. Typical acupuncture needle manipulation was conducted eight times for 15 s. The subjects pressed a button if they felt a de-qi sensation. We investigated how hemodynamic responses related to de-qi sensations induced at TPs and non-TPs. We observed that acupuncture stimulations producing de-qi sensations significantly decreased the Oxy-Hb concentration in the supplementary motor area (SMA), pre-supplementary motor area, and anterior dorsomedial prefrontal cortex regardless of the point stimulated. The hemodynamic responses were statistically analyzed using a general linear model and a boxcar function approximating the hemodynamic response. We observed that hemodynamic responses best fit the boxcar function when an onset delay was introduced into the analyses, and that the latency of de-qi sensations correlated with the onset delay of the best-fit function applied to the SMA. Our findings suggest that de-qi sensations favorably predict acupuncture effects on cerebral hemodynamics regardless of the type of site stimulated. Also, the effect of acupuncture stimulation in producing de-qi sensation was partly mediated by the central nervous system including the SMA.

en: Brain Topography

ja: Brain Topography


en: Brain cortical mapping by simultaneous recording of functional near infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalograms from the whole brain during right median nerve stimulation.

en: To investigate relationships between hemodynamic responses and neural activities in the somatosensory cortices, hemodynamic responses by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded simultaneously while subjects received electrical stimulation in the right median nerve. The statistical significance of the hemodynamic responses was evaluated by a general linear model (GLM) with the boxcar design matrix convoluted with Gaussian function. The resulting NIRS and EEGs data were stereotaxically superimposed on the reconstructed brain of each subject. The NIRS data indicated that changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration increased at the contralateral primary somatosensory (SI) area; responses then spread to the more posterior and ipsilateral somatosensory areas. The EEG data indicated that positive somatosensory evoked potentials peaking at 22 ms latency (P22) were recorded from the contralateral SI area. Comparison of these two sets of data indicated that the distance between the dipoles of P22 and NIRS channels with maximum hemodynamic responses was less than 10 mm, and that the two topographical maps of hemodynamic responses and current source density of P22 were significantly correlated. Furthermore, when onset of the boxcar function was delayed 5-15 s (onset delay), hemodynamic responses in the bilateral parietal association cortices posterior to the SI were more strongly correlated to electrical stimulation. This suggests that GLM analysis with onset delay could reveal the temporal ordering of neural activation in the hierarchical somatosensory pathway, consistent with the neurophysiological data. The present results suggest that simultaneous NIRS and EEG recording is useful for correlating hemodynamic responses to neural activity.


en: Water-diffusion slowdown in the human visual cortex on visual stimulation precedes vascular responses.

en: We used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate the temporal dynamics of changes in water diffusion and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) responses in the brain cortex of eight subjects undergoing visual stimulation, and compared them with changes of the vascular hemoglobin content (oxygenated, deoxygenated, and total hemoglobin) acquired simultaneously from intrinsic optical recordings (near infrared spectroscopy). The group average rise time for the diffusion MRI signal was statistically significantly shorter than those of the BOLD signal and total hemoglobin content optical signal, which is assumed to be the fastest observable vascular signal. In addition, the group average decay time for the diffusion MRI also was shortest. The overall time courses of the BOLD and optical signals were strongly correlated, but the covariance was weaker with the diffusion MRI response. These results suggest that the observed decrease in water diffusion reflects early events that precede the vascular responses, which could originate from changes in the extravascular tissue.

en: Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism


en: Application development of functional near-infrared imaging system (2)

ja: 光脳機能イメージング装置のアプリケーション開発(2) (特集 ライフサイエンス・分子イメージング)

en: Shimadzu review

ja: 島津評論


en: Removal of the skin blood flow artifact in functional near-infrared spectroscopic imaging data through independent component analysis.

en: We investigate whether the functional near-infrared spectroscopic (fNIRS) signal includes a signal from the changing skin blood flow. During a locomotor task on a treadmill, changes in the hemodynamic response in the front-parietal area of healthy human subjects are simultaneously recorded using an fNIRS imaging system and a laser Doppler tissue blood flow meter. Independent component analysis (ICA) for fNIRS signals is performed. The skin blood flow changes during locomotor tasks on a treadmill. The activated spatial distribution of one of the components separated by ICA reveals an overall increase in fNIRS channels. To evaluate the uniformity of the activated spatial distribution, we define a new statistical value-the coefficient of spatial uniformity (CSU). The CSU value is a highly discriminating value (e.g., 2.82) compared with values of other components (e.g., 1.41, 1.10, 0.96, 0.61, and 0.58). In addition, the independent component signal corresponding to the activated spatial distribution is similar to changes in skin blood flow measured with the laser Doppler tissue blood flow meter. The coefficient of correlation indicates strong correlation. Localized activation areas around the premotor and medial somatosensory cortices are shown more clearly by eliminating the extracted component.

en: Journal of Biomedical Optics


en: Application development of functional near-infrared imaging system

ja: 光脳機能イメージング装置のアプリケーション開発 (特集 医用画像機器(14))


en: 近赤外光イメージング装置NIRStationの開発 (特集 医用画像機器(13))


en: Three-dimensional probabilistic anatomical cranio-cerebral correlation via the international 10-20 system oriented for transcranial functional brain mapping.

en: The recent advent of multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has expanded its technical potential for human brain mapping. However, NIRS measurement has a technical drawback in that it measures cortical activities from the head surface without anatomical information of the object to be measured. This problem is also found in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) that transcranially activates or inactivates the cortical surface. To overcome this drawback, we examined cranio-cerebral correlation using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) via the guidance of the international 10-20 system for electrode placement, which had originally been developed for electroencephalography. We projected the 10-20 standard cranial positions over the cerebral cortical surface. After examining the cranio-cerebral correspondence for 17 healthy adults, we normalized the 10-20 cortical projection points of the subjects to the standard Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and Talairach stereotactic coordinates and obtained their probabilistic distributions. We also expressed the anatomical structures for the 10-20 cortical projection points probabilistically. Next, we examined the distance between the cortical surface and the head surface along the scalp and created a cortical surface depth map. We found that the locations of 10-20 cortical projection points in the standard MNI or Talairach space could be estimated with an average standard deviation of 8 mm. This study provided an initial step toward establishing a three-dimensional probabilistic anatomical platform that enables intra- and intermodal comparisons of NIRS and TMS brain imaging data.

en: Neuroimage

ja: Neuroimage


en: FASCINATE: a pulse sequence for simultaneous acquisition of T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated images.

en: A pulse sequence that enables simultaneous acquisition of T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated images is presented. This sequence is referred to as FASCINATE (Fluid-Attenuated Scan Combined with Interleaved Non-ATtEnuation). In this new technique, the inversion pulse of conventional fast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) is replaced with a fast spin echo (FSE) acquisition that has an additional 180(y)-90(x) pulse train for driven inversion. By using appropriate scan parameters, the first part of the sequence provides T2-weighted images and the second part provides fluid-attenuated images, thus allowing simultaneous acquisition in a single scan time comparable to that of fast FLAIR. FASCINATE was compared with conventional scanning techniques using a normal volunteer and a patient. A signal simulation was also conducted. In the human study, both T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated images from FASCINATE showed the same image quality as conventional images, suggesting the potential for this technique to replace the combination of fast FLAIR and T2-weighted FSE for scan time reduction.

en: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

ja: Magnetic Resonance in Medicine


en: 近赤外分光法の医療応用:NIRSからfNIRSへ

ja: 近赤外分光法の医療応用:NIRSからfNIRSへ

en: Journal of the Japan Society of Infrared Science and Technolog


en: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVIII

ja: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVIII

en: 島津評論


en: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVII

ja: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVII


en: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVI

ja: MRI装置の臨床用ソフトウェアVI


en: MRI装置の臨床ソフトウェアⅤ

ja: MRI装置の臨床ソフトウェアⅤ


en: DNA の相転移における熱特性の統計力学的解析

ja: DNA の相転移における熱特性の統計力学的解析

en: 宮崎大学工学部研究報告

ja: 宮崎大学工学部研究報告


en: High frequency activities in the frontal cortices during observation of moral or immoral behaviors

en: Clinical Neurophysiology

ja: Clinical Neurophysiology


en: レーザー学会産業賞を受賞して -近赤外レーザーを用いた脳機能計測装置-

ja: レーザー学会産業賞を受賞して -近赤外レーザーを用いた脳機能計測装置-

en: レーザ研究

ja: レーザ研究