Registering fNIR data to brain surface image using MRI templates

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) measures changes in the relative levels of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin and has increasingly been used to assess neural functioning in the brain. In addition to the ongoing technological developments, investigators have also been conducting studies on functional mapping and refinement of data analytic strategies in order to better understand the relationship between the fNIR signal and brain activity. However, since fNIR is a relatively new functional brain imaging modality as compared to positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it still lacks brain-mapping tools designed to allow researchers and clinicians to easily interact with their data. The aim of this study is to develop a registration technique for the fNIR measurements using anatomical landmarks and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) templates in order to visualize the brain activation when and where it happens. The proposed registration technique utilizes chain-code algorithm and depicts activations over respective locations based on sensor geometry. Furthermore, registered data locations have been used to create spatiotemporal visualization of fNIR measurements.