Andres Quiroga

Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides insight into the intrinsic organization of brain networks and is increasingly recognized as a sensitive marker of age-related neural changes. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers a portable and cost-effective approach to measuring rsFC, including in naturalistic settings. However, its sensitivity to age-related alterations in network topology remains poorly characterized. Here, we applied graph-based analysis to resting-state fNIRS data from 57 healthy participants, including 26 young adults (YA, 18–30 years) and 31 older adults (OA, 50–77 years). We observed that older adults exhibited a marked attenuation of low-frequency oscillation (LFO) power across all hemoglobin contrasts, corresponding to a 5–6-fold reduction in spectral power. In addition, network analysis revealed altered topological organization under matched sparsity conditions, characterized by reduced degree heterogeneity and increased segregation in older adults, with the strongest differences observed in the default mode (DMN), auditory, and frontoparietal control (FPC) networks. Network visualizations further indicated a shift toward more right-lateralized and posterior hub organization in older adults. Together, the coexistence of reduced oscillatory power and increased connectivity suggests that fNIRS-derived rsFC reflects combined neural and non-neural hemodynamic influences, including increased coherence arising from age-related vascular and systemic physiological processes. Overall, our findings demonstrate that fNIRS is sensitive to age-related changes in large-scale hemodynamic network organization. At the same time, sensitivity to non-neural hemodynamics highlights the need for cautious interpretation, but it may provide complementary, clinically relevant signatures of aging-related changes.

We present a compact, affordable optical device that combines speckle contrast and spatially resolved spectroscopy for non-invasive bedside assessment of tissue blood flow and oxygenation. Tests on healthy volunteers show its potential for point-of-care use.

Resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) provides insight into the intrinsic organization of brain networks and is increasingly recognized as a sensitive marker of age-related neural changes. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) provides a portable and cost-effective approach to measuring rsFC, including in naturalistic environments. However, the sensitivity of fNIRS to age-related alterations in rsFC topology remains poorly characterized. Here, we applied graph-based analysis to fNIRS data acquired during rest from 57 healthy participants divided into two groups: 26 young adults (18-30 years) and 31 older adults (50-77 years). Despite observing significantly attenuated low-frequency oscillation (LFO) power in older adults (5-6 fold reduction, p < 0.001), network analysis revealed counterintuitively higher connectivity in this group. Specifically, older adults exhibited 50-86% greater degree density, 16-43% higher clustering coefficients, and 31-75% greater global efficiency compared to young adults. These patterns were consistent across all canonical resting-state networks (sensorimotor, auditory, visual, frontoparietal, default mode) and all hemoglobin contrasts. While network decay rates were slower in older adults, the coexistence of reduced oscillatory and increased connectivity may reflect vascular rather than purely neural contributions. Overall, our findings validate fNIRS as a sensitive tool for detecting age-related changes in network organization, while highlighting the importance of disentangling neural and vascular signal components in aging research.

In this paper, we introduce a speckle contrast optical spectroscopy/tomography (SCOS/SCOT) configuration based on an integrated imaging approach exploiting 113 micro-objectives mounted on a commercial CMOS camera that operates without fiber coupling, suitable for direct skin contact measurements and simultaneous multiple source-detector separation acquisitions. This compact system was validated ex vivo on phantoms and in vivo by monitoring the blood flow on the forearm muscle of a healthy human subject. The measurements, performed at multiple source-detector separations and camera exposure times, demonstrate excellent agreement with the theory based on the correlation-diffusion model. In vivo data demonstrate the capability of tracking pulsatile blood flow with a high signal-to-noise ratio (>4 harmonics of the cardiac pulse frequency detected) and sensitivity to small changes in muscle blood flow. This micro-objective array-based design overcomes a key challenge towards wearable SCOS/SCOT devices.

In this paper, we introduce a speckle contrast optical spectroscopy/tomography (SCOS/SCOT) configuration based on an integrated imaging approach exploiting 113 micro-objetives mounted on a commercial CMOS camera that operates without fiber coupling, suitable for direct skin contact measurements and simultaneous multiple source-detector separation acquisitions. This compact system was validated ex vivo on phantoms and in vivo by monitoring the blood flow on the forearm muscle of a healthy human subject. The measurements, performed at multiple source-detector separations and camera exposure times, demonstrate excellent agreement with the theory based on the correlation-diffusion model. In vivo data demonstrate the capability of tracking pulsatile blood flow with a high signal-to-noise ratio ( > 4 harmonics of the cardiac pulse frequency detected) and sensitivity to small changes in muscle blood flow. This micro-objective array-based design overcomes a key challenge towards wearable SCOS/SCOT devices.

A compact, hybrid near-infrared and speckle contrast optical spectroscopy system is presented for monitoring microvascular blood flow and tissue oxygen saturation. High-speed acquisition (16.7 Hz) and signal-to-noise ratios (19-32 dB) were achieved. Vascular occlusion tests demonstrated accurate, real-time monitoring of hemodynamic changes. This system offers a promising tool for non-invasive muscle monitoring.

Carotid artery stenosis (CAS) is a common vascular disease with long-term consequences for the brain. Although CAS is strongly associated with impaired cerebral hemodynamics and neurodegeneration, the mechanisms underlying hemodynamic impairment in the microvasculature remain unknown. In this work, we employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to introduce a methodological approach for quantifying the temporal delay of the evoked hemodynamic response. The method was validated during a vasodilatory task (breath-holding) in 50 CAS patients and 20 controls. Our results suggest that the hemodynamic response to breath-holding can be delayed by up to 6 s in the most severe patients, a significant increase from the median 4 s measured for the control group (p = 0.01). In addition, the fraction of brain regions that responded to the task decreased as the CAS severity increased, from a median of 90% in controls to 73% in the most severe CAS group (p = 0.04). The presence of collateral circulation increases the response to breath-holding and decreases the average time delays across the brain, although the number of communicating arteries alone cannot predict these fNIRS-based hemodynamic variables (p > 0.09). Overall, this work proposes a method to quantitatively assess impaired cerebral hemodynamics in CAS patients.

Neurophysiological monitoring is an important goal in the treatment of neurocritical patients, as it may prevent secondary damage and directly impact morbidity and mortality rates. However, there is currently a lack of suitable non-invasive, real-time technologies for continuous monitoring of cerebral physiology at the bedside. Diffuse optical techniques have been proposed as a potential tool for bedside measurements of cerebral blood flow and cerebral oxygenation in case of neurocritical patients. Diffuse optical spectroscopies have been previously explored to monitor patients in several clinical scenarios ranging from neonatal monitoring to cerebrovascular interventions in adults. However, the feasibility of the technique to aid clinicians by providing real-time information at the bedside remains largely unaddressed. Here, we report the translation of a diffuse optical system for continuous real-time monitoring of cerebral blood flow, cerebral oxygenation, and cerebral oxygen metabolism during intensive care. The real-time feature of the instrument could enable treatment strategies based on patient-specific cerebral physiology rather than relying on surrogate metrics, such as arterial blood pressure. By providing real-time information on the cerebral circulation at different time scales with relatively cheap and portable instrumentation, this approach may be especially useful in low-budget hospitals, in remote areas and for monitoring in open fields (e.g., defense and sports).