Although Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) functional MRI (fMRI) is widely used to examine brain function in adults, the need for general anesthesia limits its practical utility in infants and small children. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy – Diffuse Optical Tomography (fNIRS-DOT) imaging promises to be an alternative brain network imaging technique. Yet current versions of continuous-wave fNIRS-DOT systems are restricted to the cortical surface measurements and do not probe deep structures that are frequently injured especially in premature infants. Herein we report a transcranial near infrared optical imaging system, called Cap-based Transcranial Optical Tomography (CTOT) able to image whole brain hemodynamic activity with 3 seconds of data acquisition time. We show the system is capable of whole brain oxygenation mapping in an awake child, and that tomographically reconstructed static CTOT-derived oxy- and deoxygenated blood volumes are spatially correlated with the time-averaged BOLD fMRI volumes. By removing time bottlenecks in the current system, dynamic CTOT mapping should be possible, which would then enable evaluation of functional connectivity in awake infants.

中文翻译：

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清醒型婴儿中基于帽的经颅光学层析成像。

尽管血液氧合水平依赖性（BOLD）功能MRI（fMRI）被广泛用于检查成人的脑功能，但是对全身麻醉的需求限制了其在婴儿和幼儿中的实际应用。功能性近红外光谱-弥散光学层析成像（fNIRS-DOT）成像有望成为一种替代性的脑网络成像技术。然而，当前版本的连续波fNIRS-DOT系统仅限于皮层表面测量，不能探测尤其在早产儿中经常受伤的深层结构。本文中，我们报告了一种经颅近红外光学成像系统，称为基于帽的经颅光学层析成像（CTOT），它可以在3秒钟的数据采集时间内对全脑血液动力学活动进行成像。我们显示该系统能够在清醒的孩子中进行全脑氧合映射，并且层析成像重建的静态CTOT衍生的氧和脱氧血容量与时间平均BOLD fMRI容量在空间上相关。通过消除当前系统中的时间瓶颈，应该可以实现动态CTOT映射，从而可以评估清醒婴儿的功能连接性。