Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Our team (1PI, 7 major users, 6 new incoming users) has developed renown expertise in using functional Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (fNIRS), as a wearable neuroimaging technique to map brain activity in realistic lifestyle conditions (while sleeping, walking or biking). Sending and receiving infra-red light from the scalp, fNIRS measures cortical hemodynamic fluctuations and oxygenation, by monitoring local changes in oxy-(HbO) and deoxyhemoglobin(HbR) concentrations. Within the Physiology suite of Concordia School of Health, we propose a versatile platform featuring wearable devices such as fNIRS to map brain hemodynamic activity, Electro-EncephaloGraphy (EEG) to map brain bioelectrical activity, and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to stimulate brain activity. Localizing accurately brain activity from scalp fNIRS or EEG recordings is the main expertise of C.Grova (PI). We are requesting an upgrade of our "wired" fNIRS device, originally purchased in 2009, to support important ongoing funded research projects, promoting whole night EEG/fNIRS recordings as a new paradigm to investigate sleep physiology and interactions between sleep and epilepsy. Our team developed the concept of personalized fNIRS, optimizing the position of fNIRS sensors on the scalp to maximize signal sensitivity to predefined target brain regions, while allowing accurate local 3D reconstruction of HbO/HbR along the cortex. By gluing EEG electrodes and fNIRS sensors on the scalp, whole night EEG/fNIRS monitoring became feasible, featuring valuable tools to characterize sleep physiology in healthy conditions, but also sleep disorders and interactions between sleep and epilepsy. Conventional wireless fNIRS caps are not compatible with sleep studies (thickness of sources/detectors attached to the cap), therefore using low-profile optic fibers is essential. Whereas our requested equipment will also increase the spatial density of our wireless fNIRS devices, allowing accurate 3D mapping of brain activity during complex cognitive tasks in motion, our requested "wired" fNIRS device will be equipped with sufficiently long fibers ensuring compatibility with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) recordings. This set-up will allow the design of new challenging paradigms combining fNIRS and functional MRI (fMRI) or even EEG/fNIRS/fMRI recordings to study brain physiology (e.g. effect of breathing gas manipulations on brain metabolism, sleep physiology, analysis circadian rhythms). Benefiting from our team expertise in simultaneous EEG/fMRI studies in sleep and cognition, our team will among the first in the world to promote these challenging/promising multimodal research initiatives with fNIRS, offering a unique opportunity to shed light on fundamental mechanisms driving brain activity. The proposed set-up will be ideal to support several ongoing and new research initiatives at Concordia School of Health, offering an ideal environment to train HQP within a multidisciplinary diverse team.