Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

Over the last 10 years, researchers have developed a new brain imaging technique called functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which allows us to look at brain activation in healthy, awake infants. Just like brain scanners that you may have seen in the media, this technique also measures changes in the amount of oxygen in the blood supply to the brain, but this one is easy to use in research with babies. Such research is very important as it can teach us how the brain develops. It will also enable us to lean which areas of the brain are involved in different behaviours.

fNIRS emits weak rays of light into the head and measures the colour of the light reflected back. If your brain is using lots of oxygen and is busy responding to something, your blood will be red like your arteries. If your blood has less oxygen it will be a bluer colour like your veins. By measuring these colour changes while your baby does an activity or watches something on the television, we can see which part of the brain is active. This technique is completely safe and has increasingly been used to study the infant brain all over the world. There is no rick associated with measuring brain activity by this technique. 

If you are happy for us to proceed with the fNIRS study, this is what will happen:

• You will be with your baby at all times during the study.
• First we measure your baby´s head circumference with a soft tape measure so we can adjust the hat for your baby.
• Then we place the hat on your baby´s head. While we do this, we play with your baby to keep him/her entertained, and then we can adjust the hat so that it fits your baby perfectly and comfortably. Generally babies are quite happy having the hat on and enjoy watching the screen. But if your baby becomes fussy at any point, we can take the hat off straight away.
• If you like we will also email you a photograph of your baby wearing the hat as a souvenir.