An Jiahui, Goyal Pulkit, Luft Andreas R, Schönhammer Josef G
University of Zürich, ETH Zürich, Institute of Neuroinformatics, Zürich, Switzerland.
University of Tübingen, Graduate Training Center of Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany.
Neurophotonics. 2025 Jul;12(3):035009. doi: 10.1117/1.NPh.12.3.035009. Epub 2025 Aug 21.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a noninvasive technique commonly used to examine cognitive functions such as working memory (WM). However, fNIRS signals are often interfered with by extracerebral activity, such as scalp hemodynamics. Short separation channels (SSCs) allow direct measurement of these signals. Short-channel regression (SCR) is widely used to reduce scalp interference, but its added value in WM paradigms remains underexplored.
We aimed to examine the effect of SCR on improving the validity of fNIRS measurements for WM load (WML).
We used the -Back task to induce WML-dependent brain activation by varying the " " level. Data from 20 participants were collected using fNIRS with SSC. Hemodynamic responses were analyzed with generalized linear models and linear mixed models to assess SCR's effect on the sensitivity of cortical activation measures.
SCR enhanced the statistical effects of -Back levels on measured hemodynamic responses at both group and subject levels, improving the validity and sensitivity of fNIRS.
SCR improves fNIRS measurement sensitivity and validity, even in tasks with minimal motor requirements.
功能近红外光谱技术（fNIRS）是一种常用的非侵入性技术，用于检测诸如工作记忆（WM）等认知功能。然而，fNIRS信号经常受到脑外活动的干扰，如头皮血流动力学。短分离通道（SSC）可直接测量这些信号。短通道回归（SCR）被广泛用于减少头皮干扰，但其在WM范式中的附加价值仍未得到充分探索。
我们旨在研究SCR对提高fNIRS测量工作记忆负荷（WML）有效性的影响。
我们使用n-back任务，通过改变“n”水平来诱导依赖WML的大脑激活。使用带有SSC的fNIRS收集了20名参与者的数据。使用广义线性模型和线性混合模型分析血流动力学反应，以评估SCR对皮质激活测量敏感性的影响。
SCR在组水平和个体水平上均增强了n-back水平对测量的血流动力学反应的统计效应，提高了fNIRS的有效性和敏感性。
即使在运动需求最小的任务中，SCR也能提高fNIRS测量的敏感性和有效性。
