ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2023
Demographic reporting and phenotypic exclusion in fNIRS.
Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 35 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physiological influences on neurovascular coupling: A systematic review of multimodal imaging approaches and recommendations for future study designs.Experimental physiology · 2025Pooled it
- Advances in fully integrated wearable near-infrared spectroscopy: hardware innovations and biomedical applications.JPhys photonics · 2026Review
- Developing Best Practices for Inclusion in fNIRS Research: Equity for Participants With Afro-Textured Hair.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Review
- fNIRS in global child health research: insights from failure mode and effects analysis on a longitudinal project in Bangladesh.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Who Participates in Research and Why: Reducing Barriers to Diversifying Samples in Developmental Psychobiology.Developmental psychobiology · 2026Article
- Expanding the toolkit: OPMs for studying the developing brain.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Review
- Group-level test-retest reliability assessment using systemic physiology augmented functional near-infrared spectroscopy during a passive-listening task.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Developing an inclusive approach to fNIRS research in women of color.Neurophotonics · 2026Article
- Fostering inclusive participation in non-invasive neurotechnology research: a community-based study with an underrepresented population.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Quantifying the impact of hair and skin characteristics on fNIRS signal quality for enhanced inclusivity.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- The neural correlates of novel versus familiar metaphors in healthy young adults: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The effects of protocol factors and participant characteristics on functional near-infrared spectroscopy data quality after stroke.Neuroimage. Reports · 2025Article
- Assessment of cortical activity, functional connectivity, and neuroplasticity in cerebral palsy using functional near-infrared spectroscopy: A scoping review.Developmental medicine and child neurology · 2025Article
- Simultaneous EEG and fNIRS recordings for semantic decoding of imagined animals and tools.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Modality-level obstacles and initiatives to improve representation in fetal, infant, and toddler neuroimaging research samples.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Article
- Exploring Graph Theory Mechanisms of Fluid Intelligence in the DLPFC: Insights From Resting-State fNIRS Across Various Time Windows.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Wearable Wireless Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy System for Cognitive Activity Monitoring.Biosensors · 2025Article
- Empathy and helping: the role of affect in response to others' suffering.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Open-access fNIRS dataset for motor imagery of lower-limb knee and ankle joint tasks.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2025Article
- Caregiver-child neural synchrony: Magic, mirage, or developmental mechanism?Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 6 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) promises to be a leading non-invasive neuroimaging method due to its portability and low cost. However, concerns are rising over its inclusivity of all skin tones and hair types (Parker and Ricard, 2022, Webb et al., 2022). Functional NIRS relies on direct contact of light-emitting optodes to the scalp, which can be blocked more by longer, darker, and especially curlier hair. Additionally, NIR light can be attenuated by melanin, which is accounted for in neither fNIRS hardware nor analysis methods. Recent work has shown that overlooking these considerations in other modalities like EEG leads to the disproportionate exclusion of individuals with these phenotypes-especially Black people-in both clinical and research literature (Choy, 2020; Bradford et al., 2022; Louis et al., 2023). In this article, we sought to determine if (Jöbsis, 1977) biomedical optics developers and researchers report fNIRS performance variability between skin tones and hair textures, (2a) fNIRS neuroscience practitioners report phenotypic and demographic details in their articles, and thus, (2b) is a similar pattern of participant exclusion found in EEG also present in the fNIRS literature. We present a literature review of top Biomedical Optics and Human Neuroscience journals, showing that demographic and phenotypic reporting is unpopular in both fNIRS development and neuroscience applications. We conclude with a list of recommendations to the fNIRS community including examples of Black researchers addressing these issues head-on, inclusive best practices for fNIRS researchers, and recommendations to funding and regulatory bodies to achieve an inclusive neuroscience enterprise in fNIRS and beyond.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.