School of Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
College of Education and Psychology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China.
Neuroimage. 2019 Jan 15;185:955-967. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.09.044. Epub 2017 Sep 28.
We review a relatively new method for studying the developing brain in children and infants with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Despite advances in behavioral screening and brain imaging, due to paradigms that do not easily allow for testing of awake, very young, and socially-engaged children-i.e., the social and the baby brain-the biological underpinnings of this disorder remain a mystery. We introduce an approach based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which offers a noninvasive imaging technique for studying functional activations by measuring changes in the brain's hemodynamic properties. This further enables measurement of brain activation in upright, interactive settings, while maintaining general equivalence to fMRI findings. We review the existing studies that have used fNIRS for ASD, discussing their promise, limitations, and their technical aspects, gearing this study to the researcher who may be new to this technique and highlighting potential targets for future research.
我们回顾了一种相对较新的方法，用于研究自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）儿童和婴儿的发育中的大脑。尽管在行为筛查和脑成像方面取得了进展，但由于范式不容易允许对清醒、非常年幼和社交参与的儿童进行测试，即社交和婴儿大脑，因此该障碍的生物学基础仍然是一个谜。我们介绍了一种基于功能近红外光谱（fNIRS）的方法，该方法提供了一种非侵入性的成像技术，通过测量大脑血液动力学特性的变化来研究功能激活。这进一步使大脑在直立、互动的环境中的激活得以测量，同时保持与 fMRI 发现的大致等同。我们回顾了已经使用 fNIRS 进行 ASD 研究的现有研究，讨论了它们的前景、局限性和技术方面，使这项研究对可能对该技术不熟悉的研究人员具有吸引力，并强调了未来研究的潜在目标。
