The long-term objective of the Shared Instrumentation Grant Program (S10) is to bring to the research community at Stanford University a near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) system to perform cutting-edge cognitive and clinical neuroscience research. Projects for which we will use this new equipment cross the human life span - from critically ill infants to cognitively impaired aging adults - populations for whom it is often difficult to obtain functional neuroimaging data with techniques other than NIRS. The approach we describe in this application is also interdisciplinary, integrating NIRS data with genetic markers, neuropsychological and physiological measures, and testing the correspondence of NIRS with other functional neuroimaging techniques. The research to be performed with this system will have direct impact on a wide range of important clinical populations including persons with genetic or developmental disorders (e.g., fragile X syndrome, Turner syndrome, autism), cancer (metastatic breast cancer), pain (chronic pain syndrome), affective disorders (major depression and bipolar disorder), neonatal brain injury (periventricular hemorrhage and leukomalacia), sleep apnea, aging (mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease), preterm infants and learning disabilities (developmental dyslexia). The overarching aims of the proposed research are to cross-validate functional NIRS (fNIRS) with better understood functional neuroimaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and to explore novel applications of fNIRS, which are not feasible with conventional functional neuroimaging techniques. These novel applications include (1) investigation of neural response when using more ecologically valid conditions and stimuli, (2) providing fNIRS signal as feedback to subjects in real-time for neurocognitive training and to modulate pain or mood, (3) sleep monitoring, (4) simultaneous electroencephalogram (EEG) and other electrophysiological recordings and (5) investigation of functional neuroanatomy in critically ill infants. The proposed research projects are highly compatible with the mission of the Department of Health and Human Services and relevant to public health. The proposed research will take place at interdisciplinary laboratories directed by international leaders in neuroimaging techniques: developmental disorders and clinical neuroscience (Dr. Allan Reiss, Principal Investigator), fMRI methodology development (Dr. Gary Glover), cancer survival and clinical neuroscience (Dr. David Spiegel), pain and system neuroscience (Dr. Sean Mackey), affective disorders and affective neuroscience (Drs. Alan Schatzberg, Ian Gotlib and Kiki Chang), neonatology and language (Dr. Heidi Feldman) and geriatric neuroscience (Dr. Ruth O'Hara).
Disorders of brain development and function affect billions of people worldwide. The introduction of a new NIRS system to Stanford will provide a platform for significant expansion of clinical neuroscience research that promises to contribute substantively to our institution's long-term goals for improving the health and well being of individuals with brain disorders. ? ? ?
