Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) for Assessing Cerebral Cortex Function During Human Behavior in Natural/Social Situations: A Concise Review

Upon adequate stimulation, real-time maps of cortical hemodynamic responses can be obtained by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which noninvasively measures changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin after positioning multiple sources and detectors over the human scalp. This review is aimed at giving a concise and simple overview of the basic principles of fNIRS including features, strengths, advantages, limitations, and utility for evaluating human behavior. The transportable/wireless commercially available fNIRS systems have a time resolution of 1 to 10 Hz, a depth sensitivity of about 1.5 cm, and a spatial resolution up to 1 cm. fNIRS has been found suitable for many applications on human beings, either adults or infants/children, in the field of social sciences, neuroimaging basic research, and medicine. Some examples of present and future prospects of fNIRS for assessing cerebral cortex function during human behavior in different situations (in natural and social situations) will be provided. Moreover, the most recent fNIRS studies for investigating interpersonal interactions by adopting the hyperscanning approach, which consists of the measurement of brain activity simultaneously on two or more people, will be reported.

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