Multimodal Functional Neuroimaging

Our aims to accelerate clinical and translational brain research by developing and integrating multimodal neuroimaging techniques and computational methods to dissect function-related signal features in brain.

We combine functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electrophysiology recordings (EEG/MEG) to investigate the neural basis and behavioral relevance of highly organized spontaneous brain activity and connectivity.

Study: Hemodynamic correlates of spontaneous neural activity measured by human whole-head resting state EEG+fNIRS

Study: Decoding Human Mental States by Whole-Head  EEG+fNIRS during category fluency task performance

Concurrent scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which we refer to as EEG+fNIRS, promises greater accuracy than the individual modalities while remaining nearly as convenient as EEG. We sought to quantify the hybrid system’s ability to decode mental states and compare it with its unimodal components. We recorded from healthy volunteers taking the category fluency test and applied machine learning techniques to the data. EEG+fNIRS’s decoding accuracy was greater than that of its subsystems, partly due to the new type of neurovascular features made available by hybrid data. Availability of an accurate and practical decoding method has potential implications for medical diagnosis, brain-computer interface design, and neuroergonomics.

Study: Using fNIRS to measure effect of THC on prefrontal activity and working memory in cannabis users ;

Intoxication from cannabis impairs cognitive performance, in part due to the effects of 19-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis) on prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. However, a relationship between impairment in cognitive functioning with THC administration and THC-induced change in hemodynamic response has not been demonstrated. We explored the feasibility of using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the functional changes of the human PFC associated with cannabis intoxication and cognitive impairment.