Testing and Calibration of Non-Invasive Optical Imaging Technology for Functional Brain Imaging

Objective: to a) cross-validate our near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging system with existing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalogram (EEG) data, and b) to investigate any significant technical issues associated with optode placement and motion artifacts, and to explore techniques that will potentially improve the feasibility and reliability of the system according to the needs of the population for whom existing imaging systems are unsuitable. Study population: 250 healthy volunteers Design: The study will look for correlations between NIRS signal changes in healthy subjects when performing functional tasks, and existing fMRI data. Outcome Measures: graded changes in blood flow and oxygen, measured with NIRS, in response to different functional tasks.