ArticleNeuroImage2012
The physiological origin of task-evoked systemic artefacts in functional near infrared spectroscopy.
Article in NeuroImage, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 265 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
265 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 493 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Potential of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy-Based Neurofeedback-A Systematic Review and Recommendations for Best Practice.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Diagnostic and Predictive Applications of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy for Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Timing of high-definition transcranial direct current stimulation to the nondominant primary motor cortex fails to modulate cortical hemodynamic activity and improve motor sequence learning.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Trial
- Effects of an online mindfulness-based intervention on brain haemodynamics: a pilot randomized controlled trial using functional near-infrared spectroscopy.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2024Trial
- Trial
- Acute hemoglobin responses during bench press exercise across relative loads and sport backgrounds: a cross-sectional functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.European journal of applied physiology · 2026Article
- Machine Learning Classification of Migraine Using fNIRS During a Postural Task.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Cortical neuromodulation by vibration-induced illusion of movement is observed in older individuals, but not in individuals with acute stroke: a cross-sectional fNIRS study.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Enhancement of Cerebral Oxygenation by Lower-Limb Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation in Stroke Survivors.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Observational
- Computational validation of optical adaptive depth steering for continuous-wave fNIRS.Biomedical optics express · 2026Article
- Prefrontal Oxygenation During Exercise and Inhibitory Control After Aerobic and Game-Based Exercise in Young Adults.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Brain network characteristics and behavioral correlations in global developmental delay based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy.iScience · 2026Article
- Depth-sensitive cerebral blood flow and low-frequency oscillations for consciousness assessment using time-domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Functional dual-slope frequency-domain near-infrared spectroscopy data interpreted with two- and three-layer models.Biophotonics discovery · 2026Article
- Utility of Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review.Indian journal of psychological medicine · 2026Review
- Feasibility of fNIRS for assessing n-back task-related prefrontal cortex oxygenation after continuous cycling at varying intensities: an evaluation of protocol feasibility.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Toward a visualized classifier for depression: characterization of hemodynamic patterns using time-domain fNIRS.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Mind the Individual: Physiological Reactions to Long-Term Colored Light Exposure Assessed by SPA-fNIRS (Knisely Award Honorary Lecture).Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Article
- Threshold optimization in separating cortical and extracerebral hemodynamics using principal component analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Examining physiological parameters of mental workload in the cockpit: a multimethod approach.Frontiers in physiology · 2026Article
205 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
A major methodological challenge of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is its high sensitivity to haemodynamic fluctuations in the scalp. Superficial fluctuations contribute on the one hand to the physiological noise of fNIRS, impairing the signal-to-noise ratio, and may on the other hand be erroneously attributed to cerebral changes, leading to false positives in fNIRS experiments. Here we explore the localisation, time course and physiological origin of task-evoked superficial signals in fNIRS and present a method to separate them from cortical signals. We used complementary fNIRS, fMRI, MR-angiography and peripheral physiological measurements (blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance and skin blood flow) to study activation in the frontal lobe during a continuous performance task. The General Linear Model (GLM) was applied to analyse the fNIRS data, which included an additional predictor to account for systemic changes in the skin. We found that skin blood volume strongly depends on the cognitive state and that sources of task-evoked systemic signals in fNIRS are co-localized with veins draining the scalp. Task-evoked superficial artefacts were mainly observed in concentration changes of oxygenated haemoglobin and could be effectively separated from cerebral signals by GLM analysis. Based on temporal correlation of fNIRS and fMRI signals with peripheral physiological measurements we conclude that the physiological origin of the systemic artefact is a task-evoked sympathetic arterial vasoconstriction followed by a decrease in venous volume. Since changes in sympathetic outflow accompany almost any cognitive and emotional process, we expect scalp vessel artefacts to be present in a wide range of fNIRS settings used in neurocognitive research. Therefore a careful separation of fNIRS signals originating from activated brain and from scalp is a necessary precondition for unbiased fNIRS brain activation maps.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.