Kim In-Sop, Hwang Jaejin, Oh Chorong, Morris Richard J
School of Allied Health and Communicative Disorders, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA.
Pathophysiology. 2025 May 2;32(2):20. doi: 10.3390/pathophysiology32020020.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: This study explores variations in brain activity between individuals with dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and healthy older adults during a resting state using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS).
FNIRS measured brain activity in ten AD patients and six healthy individuals. A device with 16 channels was placed on each participant's forehead to measure oxygenation levels while they kept their eyes closed. The data were analyzed using a support vector machine (SVM) model.
The results indicated differences in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) levels between the two groups. Specifically, HbO levels were generally higher in the dementia group in the left hemisphere, with a sharp increase after 26 s. Conversely, HbO levels were consistently lower in the right hemisphere of the dementia group. The SVM analysis demonstrated high accuracy in differentiating between the AD and healthy groups based on HbO levels.
The study indicates that differences in brain activity during resting state can potentially distinguish people with DAT from healthy individuals. We found relatively reduced hemoglobin activity in the prefrontal areas of those with DAT. Furthermore, the concentration changes in the HbO in the left lateral prefrontal and right medial brain regions emerged as the most informative in distinguishing individuals with DAT from healthy individuals. The results of the current study show that this method could improve current DAT diagnostic practices due to its efficiency.
背景/目的：本研究使用功能近红外光谱技术（fNIRS），探索阿尔茨海默病型痴呆（DAT）患者与健康老年人在静息状态下大脑活动的差异。
fNIRS测量了10名AD患者和6名健康个体的大脑活动。在每位参与者闭眼时，将一个16通道的设备放置在其前额以测量氧合水平。使用支持向量机（SVM）模型对数据进行分析。
结果表明两组之间氧合血红蛋白（HbO）水平存在差异。具体而言，痴呆组左半球的HbO水平通常较高，在26秒后急剧上升。相反，痴呆组右半球的HbO水平持续较低。SVM分析显示，基于HbO水平区分AD组和健康组具有较高的准确性。
该研究表明，静息状态下的大脑活动差异可能有助于区分DAT患者与健康个体。我们发现DAT患者前额叶区域的血红蛋白活性相对降低。此外，左侧前额叶和右侧大脑内侧区域的HbO浓度变化是区分DAT患者与健康个体最具信息量的指标。本研究结果表明，该方法因其高效性可改善当前DAT的诊断实践。
