Biology subjects

Pinti, P.

Publications and source records attributed to Pinti, P..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Ecological fNIRS in mobile children: Using short separation channels to correct for systemic contamination during naturalistic neuroimaging.

AbstractO_ST_ABSSignificanceC_ST_ABSThe advances and the miniaturization in functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) instrumentation offers the potential to move the classical laboratory-based cognitive neuroscience investigations into more naturalistic settings. Wearable and mobile fNIRS devices also provide a novel child-friendly means to image functional brain activity in freely moving toddlers and preschoolers. Measuring brain activity in more ecologically valid settings with fNIRS presents additional challenges, such as the increased impact of physiological interferences. One of the most popular methods to minimize such interferences is to regress out short separation channels from the long separation channels (i.e., superficial signal regression or SSR). Whilst this has been extensively investigated in adults, little is known about the impact of systemic changes on the fNIRS signals recorded in children in either classical or novel naturalistic experiments. AimWe aim to investigate if extracerebral physiological changes occur in toddlers and preschoolers, and whether SSR can help minimize these interferences. ApproachWe collected fNIRS data from 3-to-7 years olds during a conventional computerized static task and in a dynamic naturalistic task in an immersive virtual reality (VR) continuous automatic virtual environment (CAVE). ResultsOur results show that superficial signal contamination data is present in both young children as in adults. Importantly, we find that SSR helps in improving the localization of functional brain activity, both in the computerized task and, to a larger extent, in the dynamic VR task. ConclusionsFollowing from these results, we formulate suggestions to advance the field of developmental neuroimaging with fNIRS, particularly in ecological settings.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2022

Mapping human social brain specialisation beyond the neuron using multimodal imaging in human infants

The specialised regional functionality of the mature human cortex partly emerges through experience-dependent specialisation during early development. Our existing understanding of this process is based on evidence from unitary imaging modalities and has thus focused on isolated changes in spatial or temporal precision of neural or haemodynamic activation alone, giving an incomplete picture of the process. We speculate that neural specialisation of function will be underpinned by better coordinated haemodynamic and metabolic changes in a broader orchestrated physiological response. Thus, we present a harmonised framework in which specialisation is indexed by the emergence of coupling between neuronal activity and vascular supply of oxygen and energy. Here, we combine simultaneous measures of coordinated neural activity (EEG), metabolic rate and oxygenated blood supply (broadband near-infrared spectroscopy) to measure emerging specialisation in the infant brain. In 4-to-7-month-old infants, we show that social processing is accompanied by spatially and temporally specific increases in coupled activation in the temporal-parietal junction, a core hub region of the adult social brain. During non-social processing coupled activation decreased in the same region, indicating specificity to social processing. Coupling was strongest with high frequency brain activity (beta and gamma), consistent with the greater energetic requirements and more localised action of high frequency brain activity. We conclude that functional specialisation of the brain is a coordinated activity across neural, haemodynamic, and metabolic changes, and our ability to measure these simultaneously opens new vistas in understanding how the brain is shaped by its environment.

developmental biology↗