Shortening intertrial intervals in event-related cognitive studies with near-infrared spectroscopy

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) enables imaging of brain activation by measuring changes in the concentration of oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin (Hb). Shortening the length of the intertrial interval (ITI) seems to be a precondition for further cognitive event-related fNIRS experiments because it leads to higher statistical power. Therefore, this study investigated whether the ITI may be reduced from 12, 6, 4 s to at least 2 s. Brain activation was examined with a NIRO-300 spectrometer at the lateral prefrontal cortex in 17 healthy subjects during a randomized event-related color-word matching Stroop task. In the left lateral prefrontal cortex, the concentration of deoxy-Hb decreased significantly stronger during incongruent than neutral trials for an ITI of 12, 6, and 2 s due to coping with interference. For 4 s of ITI, no hemodynamic interference effect was detected, which was paralleled by low behavioral interference. Further, we examined whether the length of the ITI influenced the mean hemodynamic response. Shortening the ITI reduced the amplitude of oxy-Hb in contrast to deoxy-Hb, which remained almost unaltered. Summarizing results, randomized event-related cognitive fNIRS studies enable short ITIs particularly if changes in deoxy-Hb are considered.

[1]  M. Botvinick,et al.  Parsing executive processes: strategic vs. evaluative functions of the anterior cingulate cortex. , 2000, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[2]  A M Dale,et al.  Optimal experimental design for event‐related fMRI , 1999, Human brain mapping.

[3]  Jacob Cohen.  Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences , 1969, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[4]  Frithjof Kruggel,et al.  Age dependency of the hemodynamic response as measured by functional near-infrared spectroscopy , 2003, NeuroImage.

[5]  T. Braver,et al.  Anterior cingulate cortex and response conflict: effects of response modality and processing domain. , 2001, Cerebral Cortex.

[6]  Huijuan Zhao,et al.  Maps of optical differential pathlength factor of human adult forehead, somatosensory motor and occipital regions at multi-wavelengths in NIR. , 2002, Physics in medicine and biology.

[7]  A. Villringer,et al.  Cross talk in the Lambert-Beer calculation for near-infrared wavelengths estimated by Monte Carlo simulations. , 2002, Journal of biomedical optics.

[8]  A Villringer,et al.  Near-infrared spectroscopy: does it function in functional activation studies of the adult brain? , 2000, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[9]  K.,et al.  Reduced Frontal Functional Asymmetry in Schizophrenia During a Cued Continuous Performance Test Assessed With Near-Infrared Spectroscopy , 2006 .

[10]  B. J. Casey,et al.  Regional brain activity when selecting a response despite interference: An H2 15O PET study of the stroop and an emotional stroop , 1994, Human brain mapping.

[11]  Jin Fan,et al.  Cognitive and Brain Consequences of Conflict , 2003, NeuroImage.

[12]  D. Delpy,et al.  Optical pathlength measurements on adult head, calf and forearm and the head of the newborn infant using phase resolved optical spectroscopy. , 1995, Physics in medicine and biology.

[13]  David A. Boas,et al.  Factors affecting the accuracy of near-infrared spectroscopy concentration calculations for focal changes in oxygenation parameters , 2003, NeuroImage.

[14]  S. Petersen,et al.  Characterizing the Hemodynamic Response: Effects of Presentation Rate, Sampling Procedure, and the Possibility of Ordering Brain Activity Based on Relative Timing , 2000, NeuroImage.

[15]  David A. Boas,et al.  Differences in the hemodynamic response to event-related motor and visual paradigms as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy , 2003, NeuroImage.

[16]  A. Villringer,et al.  Noninvasive Assessment of Changes in Cytochrome-c Oxidase Oxidation in Human Subjects during Visual Stimulation , 1999, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[17]  P. Skudlarski,et al.  An event-related functional MRI study of the stroop color word interference task. , 2000, Cerebral cortex.

[18]  G. Lohmann,et al.  Color-Word Matching Stroop Task: Separating Interference and Response Conflict , 2001, NeuroImage.

[19]  A. Villringer,et al.  Non-invasive optical spectroscopy and imaging of human brain function , 1997, Trends in Neurosciences.

[20]  T. Woodward,et al.  The Role of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex in Conflict Processing: Evidence from Reverse Stroop Interference , 2001, NeuroImage.

[21]  K. Sakai,et al.  Lateralized activation in the inferior frontal cortex during syntactic processing: Event‐related optical topography study , 2002, Human brain mapping.

[22]  N. Cohen,et al.  Attentional Control in the Aging Brain: Insights from an fMRI Study of the Stroop Task , 2002, Brain and Cognition.

[23]  J. Stroop.  Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. , 1992 .

[24]  T. Braver,et al.  Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Response Conflict : Effects of Response Modality and Processing Domain , 2022 .

[25]  Stefan Pollmann,et al.  Use of Short Intertrial Intervals in Single-Trial Experiments: A 3T fMRI-Study , 1998, NeuroImage.

[26]  A. Villringer,et al.  Beyond the Visible—Imaging the Human Brain with Light , 2003, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[27]  H. Yamasue,et al.  Hypoactivation of the prefrontal cortex during verbal fluency test in PTSD: a near-infrared spectroscopy study , 2003, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

[28]  S. Arridge,et al.  Spectral Dependence of Temporal Point Spread Functions in Human Tissues , 2022 .

[29]  Arthur F. Kramer,et al.  fMRI Studies of Stroop Tasks Reveal Unique Roles of Anterior and Posterior Brain Systems in Attentional Selection , 2000, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[30]  D. Delpy,et al.  System for long-term measurement of cerebral blood and tissue oxygenation on newborn infants by near infra-red transillumination , 1988, Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing.

[31]  Hellmuth Obrig,et al.  Towards a standard analysis for functional near-infrared imaging , 2004, NeuroImage.

[32]  Atsushi Maki,et al.  Simultaneous Recording of Event-Related Auditory Oddball Response Using Transcranial Near Infrared Optical Topography and Surface EEG , 2002, NeuroImage.

[33]  Y. Hoshi.  Functional near-infrared optical imaging: utility and limitations in human brain mapping. , 2003, Psychophysiology.

[34]  A Maki,et al.  Wavelength dependence of the precision of noninvasive optical measurement of oxy-, deoxy-, and total-hemoglobin concentration. , 2001, Medical physics.

[35]  Stefan Pollmann,et al.  Event‐related fMRI: Comparison of conditions with varying BOLD overlap , 2000, Human brain mapping.

[36]  S. Kornblum,et al.  Isolation of Specific Interference Processing in the Stroop Task: PET Activation Studies , 1997, NeuroImage.

[37]  A M Dale,et al.  Randomized event‐related experimental designs allow for extremely rapid presentation rates using functional MRI , 1998, Neuroreport.

[38]  Hellmuth Obrig,et al.  Linear Aspects of Changes in Deoxygenated Hemoglobin Concentration and Cytochrome Oxidase Oxidation during Brain Activation , 2001, NeuroImage.

[39]  Frithjof Kruggel,et al.  Near‐infrared spectroscopy can detect brain activity during a color–word matching Stroop task in an event‐related design , 2002, Human brain mapping.

[40]  Colin M. Macleod.  Half a century of research on the Stroop effect: an integrative review. , 1991, Psychological bulletin.

[41]  R. Homan,et al.  Cerebral location of international 10-20 system electrode placement. , 1987, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.