Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Explained! | Neuroscience Methods 101

Functional near infrared spectroscopy, or fNIRS, can measure brain activation by measuring oxygen levels in the brain. Here we explain how it works.

Similar to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), fNIRS measures the blood oxygen level dependent response, or BOLD response. However, both methods go about it in a different way. fNIRS uses near-infrared light, which penetrates skin and skull to shine on cortical brain tissue. Within this tissue the light is absobed at different rates. Blood with a lot of oxygen, or oxygenated blood, absorbs mainly near infrared wavelengths above 790 nm, whereas deoxygenated blood absorbs mainly wavelenghts below 790 nm.

Using these proporties, with fNIRS the ration between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood can be calculated for a given brain region. This will inform you about which of these areas is activated.

fNIRS is spatially less precise than fMRI, but it is cheaper and allows for more movement. This can be good for research on movement, or when working with pediatric or geriatric populations.

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Narrated by: Miles Wischnewski

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[vaibhavnarula]

This was an amazing concise, yet very proper explanation into the Neuroscience topics. Thanks you so much. Keep up the good work man. All of your videos are short, elegant and deep enough to give an apt revision while brushing up before exams.

[meryem]

it is very useful for my bme101 midterm... Thanks a lot

[GamingGelehrter]

Thx for this Video. So less information on this one

[JCThink]

Hello very interesting, i want to know if this fNIRS will be helpful for conducting neurofeedback training?

[송희-of]

Hello, I'm Korean. I'd appreciate it if you could consider that I'm using a translator for the language. It's just that I had to research fnirs for my school performance evaluation, but I didn't have the right data, so I found this video while looking for it. But there's no caption, so I'm writing to ask if I understood it correctly. I want to know how to investigate fnirs. I'll just tell you what I understood. When neurons are activated, they require energy and oxygen levels in the brain rise rapidly, so oxygen enters the blood, and oxygen in the blood absorbs infrared wavelengths from fnirs. Depending on the amount of oxygen, the degree of absorption either absorbs long wavelengths or absorbs short wavelengths. After absorption, the optical detector detects how much of a specific wavelength is absorbed, and the ratio of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to absorb the wavelengths

If there's anything I missed, please let me know in the comments I don't have time, so I'd appreciate it if you could reply quickly. I'm sorry And the more you absorb the wavelength, the more positive it is? Please answer. I'm sorry again

[qwertyqart]

Would it be possible to collect fnir data during tms treatment? Specifically, when the train is not delivered during iti

[btno]

Instead of fmir. How about. Electrodes made out of INFARED to reach the sub sections of the brain such as the temporal lobes cerebellum, basil ganglia, and amygdala