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Collins-Jones LH, Cooper RJ, Bulgarelli C, Blasi A, Katus L, McCann S, Mason L, Mbye E, Touray E, Ceesay M, Moore SE, Lloyd-Fox S, Elwell CE. Longitudinal infant fNIRS channel-space analyses are robust to variability parameters at the group-level: An image reconstruction investigation. Neuroimage 2021; 237:118068. [PMID: 33915275 PMCID: PMC8285580 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 04/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
First investigation of validity of longitudinal infant channel-space fNIRS analysis. Novel image reconstruction analysis conducted. Variability in array position is dominant factor driving different inferences. Channel-space fNIRS analyses robust to implicit assumptions at group-level. Hope to encourage more widespread use of image reconstruction in infant analyses.
The first 1000 days from conception to two-years of age are a critical period in brain development, and there is an increasing drive for developing technologies to help advance our understanding of neurodevelopmental processes during this time. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) has enabled longitudinal infant brain function to be studied in a multitude of settings. Conventional fNIRS analyses tend to occur in the channel-space, where data from equivalent channels across individuals are combined, which implicitly assumes that head size and source-detector positions (i.e. array position) on the scalp are constant across individuals. The validity of such assumptions in longitudinal infant fNIRS analyses, where head growth is most rapid, has not previously been investigated. We employed an image reconstruction approach to analyse fNIRS data collected from a longitudinal cohort of infants in The Gambia aged 5- to 12-months. This enabled us to investigate the effect of variability in both head size and array position on the anatomical and statistical inferences drawn from the data at both the group- and the individual-level. We also sought to investigate the impact of group size on inferences drawn from the data. We found that variability in array position was the driving factor between differing inferences drawn from the data at both the individual- and group-level, but its effect was weakened as group size increased towards the full cohort size (N = 53 at 5-months, N = 40 at 8-months and N = 45 at 12-months). We conclude that, at the group sizes in our dataset, group-level channel-space analysis of longitudinal infant fNIRS data is robust to assumptions about head size and array position given the variability in these parameters in our dataset. These findings support a more widespread use of image reconstruction techniques in longitudinal infant fNIRS studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liam H Collins-Jones
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
| | - Robert J Cooper
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK; DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Chiara Bulgarelli
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Anna Blasi
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Laura Katus
- Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK; Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Samantha McCann
- Department of Women and Children's Health, Kings College London, London, UK
| | - Luke Mason
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, London, UK
| | - Ebrima Mbye
- MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - Ebou Touray
- MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - Mohammed Ceesay
- MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - Sophie E Moore
- Department of Women and Children's Health, Kings College London, London, UK; MRC Unit The Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
| | - Sarah Lloyd-Fox
- Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| | - Clare E Elwell
- Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
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Blanco B, Molnar M, Carreiras M, Collins-Jones LH, Vidal E, Cooper RJ, Caballero-Gaudes C. Group-level cortical functional connectivity patterns using fNIRS: assessing the effect of bilingualism in young infants. Neurophotonics 2021; 8:025011. [PMID: 34136588 PMCID: PMC8200331 DOI: 10.1117/1.nph.8.2.025011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2021] [Accepted: 05/25/2021] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
Significance: Early monolingual versus bilingual experience induces adaptations in the development of linguistic and cognitive processes, and it modulates functional activation patterns during the first months of life. Resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) is a convenient approach to study the functional organization of the infant brain. RSFC can be measured in infants during natural sleep, and it allows to simultaneously investigate various functional systems. Adaptations have been observed in RSFC due to a lifelong bilingual experience. Investigating whether bilingualism-induced adaptations in RSFC begin to emerge early in development has important implications for our understanding of how the infant brain's organization can be shaped by early environmental factors. Aims: We attempt to describe RSFC using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and to examine whether it adapts to early monolingual versus bilingual environments. We also present an fNIRS data preprocessing and analysis pipeline that can be used to reliably characterize RSFC in development and to reduce false positives and flawed results interpretations. Methods: We measured spontaneous hemodynamic brain activity in a large cohort ( N = 99 ) of 4-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants using fNIRS. We implemented group-level approaches based on independent component analysis to examine RSFC, while providing proper control for physiological confounds and multiple comparisons. Results: At the group level, we describe the functional organization of the 4-month-old infant brain in large-scale cortical networks. Unbiased group-level comparisons revealed no differences in RSFC between monolingual and bilingual infants at this age. Conclusions: High-quality fNIRS data provide a means to reliably describe RSFC patterns in the infant brain. The proposed group-level RSFC analyses allow to assess differences in RSFC across experimental conditions. An effect of early bilingual experience in RSFC was not observed, suggesting that adaptations might only emerge during explicit linguistic tasks, or at a later point in development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Borja Blanco
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain
- University College London, Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, DOT-HUB, London, United Kingdom
| | - Monika Molnar
- University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Manuel Carreiras
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain, and Language, Donostia/San Sebastián, Spain
- Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
| | - Liam H. Collins-Jones
- University College London, Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, DOT-HUB, London, United Kingdom
| | - Ernesto Vidal
- University College London, Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, DOT-HUB, London, United Kingdom
| | - Robert J. Cooper
- University College London, Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, DOT-HUB, London, United Kingdom
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Collins-Jones LH, Arichi T, Poppe T, Billing A, Xiao J, Fabrizi L, Brigadoi S, Hebden JC, Elwell CE, Cooper RJ. Construction and validation of a database of head models for functional imaging of the neonatal brain. Hum Brain Mapp 2020; 42:567-586. [PMID: 33068482 PMCID: PMC7814762 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25242] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2020] [Revised: 07/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The neonatal brain undergoes dramatic structural and functional changes over the last trimester of gestation. The accuracy of source localisation of brain activity recorded from the scalp therefore relies on accurate age-specific head models. Although an age-appropriate population-level atlas could be used, detail is lost in the construction of such atlases, in particular with regard to the smoothing of the cortical surface, and so such a model is not representative of anatomy at an individual level. In this work, we describe the construction of a database of individual structural priors of the neonatal head using 215 individual-level datasets at ages 29-44 weeks postmenstrual age from the Developing Human Connectome Project. We have validated a method to segment the extra-cerebral tissue against manual segmentation. We have also conducted a leave-one-out analysis to quantify the expected spatial error incurred with regard to localising functional activation when using a best-matching individual from the database in place of a subject-specific model; the median error was calculated to be 8.3 mm (median absolute deviation 3.8 mm). The database can be applied for any functional neuroimaging modality which requires structural data whereby the physical parameters associated with that modality vary with tissue type and is freely available at www.ucl.ac.uk/dot-hub.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liam H Collins-Jones
- DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK.,Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
| | - Tomoki Arichi
- Centre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, King's Health Partners, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.,Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine, London, UK
| | - Tanya Poppe
- Centre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, King's Health Partners, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK
| | - Addison Billing
- DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK.,Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK
| | - Jiaxin Xiao
- Centre for the Developing Brain, Division of Imaging Sciences and Biomedical Engineering, King's College London, King's Health Partners, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK
| | - Lorenzo Fabrizi
- Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, London, UK
| | - Sabrina Brigadoi
- Department of Information Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.,Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Jeremy C Hebden
- DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK.,Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
| | - Clare E Elwell
- DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
| | - Robert J Cooper
- DOT-HUB, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK.,Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, UK
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