School of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing, 100044, China.
The Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310015, China.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jul 12;8(1):10588. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28804-0.
Human cardiovascular activities are important indicators of a variety of physiological and psychological activities in human neuroscience research. The present proof-of-concept study aimed to reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of cardiovascular activities from the dynamic changes in hemoglobin concentrations in the face. We first recorded the dynamics of facial transdermal blood flow using a digital video camera and the Electrocardiography (ECG) signals using an ECG system simultaneously. Then we decomposed the video imaging data extracted from different sub-regions of a face into independent components using group independent component analysis (group ICA). Finally, the ICA components that included cardiovascular activities were identified by correlating their magnitude spectrum to those obtained from the ECG. We found that cardiovascular activities were associated with five independent components reflecting different spatiotemporal dynamics of facial blood flow changes. The strongest strengths of these ICA components were observed in the bilateral forehead, the left chin, and the left cheek, respectively. Our findings suggest that the cardiovascular activities presented different dynamic properties within different facial sub-regions, respectively. More broadly, the present findings point to the potential of the transdermal optical imaging technology as a new neuroscience methodology to study human physiology and psychology, noninvasively and remotely in a contactless manner.
人类心血管活动是人类神经科学研究中各种生理和心理活动的重要指标。本概念验证研究旨在从面部血红蛋白浓度的动态变化中揭示心血管活动的时空模式。我们首先使用数字摄像机记录面部经皮血流的动力学，同时使用心电图（ECG）系统记录心电图（ECG）信号。然后，我们使用组独立成分分析（group ICA）将从面部不同子区域提取的视频成像数据分解为独立成分。最后，通过将其幅度谱与从 ECG 获得的幅度谱相关联，来识别包含心血管活动的 ICA 分量。我们发现，心血管活动与反映面部血流变化不同时空动力学的五个独立分量有关。这些 ICA 分量的最强强度分别出现在双侧额部、左侧下巴和左侧脸颊。我们的研究结果表明，心血管活动在不同的面部子区域分别呈现出不同的动态特性。更广泛地说，本研究结果表明，经皮光学成像技术作为一种新的神经科学方法，具有以非接触方式无创、远程研究人类生理学和心理学的潜力。
