Mission

Optical Brain Imaging – Fast Optical Signals (FOS) and Event-related Optical Signals (EROS)

The development of brain imaging methods, like electroencephalography (EEG)/event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), improves our understanding of the brain and the mind. EEG/ERP measures the neuronal signals of the brain and excels in localizing the brain activities in the temporal dimension, while fMRI measures the hemodynamic signals (blood flow) of the brain and is regarded as the gold standard in spatial localization of brain activities. However, as researchers learned more about how the brain works in the past 20 years, they realized that being excellent in localizing the brain activities in either temporal or spatial dimension is not enough. Brain networks, which are collections of brain regions, are the functional units of the brain; and collections of brain networks interact with each other in various cognitive processes. For example, our efficiency in processing information is related to the interaction of the resting state and the attentive networks. Brain imaging studies on aging showed that brain networks in both cerebral hemispheres were recruited to perform a cognitive task in older adults while only unilateral brain networks were involved in younger adults. In order to understand how the brain works, it is important to be able to capture the activities and interactions of the brain networks which can only be achieved by a brain imaging method with excellent spatial and temporal localization power.

The non-invasive optical brain imaging system in our laboratory offers an opportunity to be on the leading edge of these developments in the brain imaging field. Our optical brain imaging system measures changes in optical properties of the brain which are associated with changes of neuronal activities. Due to the nature of the neuronal signals being measured, this optical imaging method (also known as the “fast” optical signal) has superior spatial and temporal resolution, thereby providing a unique tool for examining the spatiotemporal dynamics of brain networks that could not be easily achieved with other brain imaging methods.