Transcranial Photobiomodulation (tPBM) With 1,064-nm Laser to Improve Cerebral Metabolism of the Human Brain In Vivo.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In our previous proof-of-principle study, transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) with 1,064-nm laser was reported to significantly increase concentration changes of oxygenated hemoglobin (∆[HbO]) and oxidized-state cytochrome c oxidase (∆[oxi-CCO]) in the human brain. This paper further investigated (i) its validity in two different subsets of young human subjects at two study sites over a period of 3 years and (ii) age-related effects of tPBM by comparing sham-controlled increases of ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO] between young and older adults. STUDY DESIGN/MATERIALS AND METHODS: We measured sham-controlled ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO] using broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (bb-NIRS) in 15 young (26.7 ± 2.7 years of age) and 5 older (68.2 ± 4.8 years of age) healthy normal subjects before, during, and after right-forehead tPBM/sham stimulation with 1,064-nm laser. Student t tests were used to test statistical differences in tPBM-induced ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO] (i) between the 15 young subjects and those of 11 reported previously and (ii) between the two age groups measured in this study. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that no significant difference existed in ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO] during and post tPBM between the two subsets of young subjects at two study sites over a period of 3 years. Furthermore, the two age groups showed statistically identical net increases in sham-controlled ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO]. CONCLUSIONS: This study provided strong evidence to validate/confirm our previous findings that tPBM with 1,064-nm laser enables to increase cerebral ∆[HbO] and ∆[oxi-CCO] in the human brain, as measured by bb-NIRS. Overall, it demonstrated the robust reproducibility of tPBM being able to improve cerebral hemodynamics and metabolism of the human brain in vivo in both young and older adults. Lasers Surg. Med. © 2020 The Authors. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Simultaneous MEG and EEG source imaging of electrophysiological activity in response to acute transcranial photobiomodulation.

Introduction: Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) is a non-invasive neuromodulation technique that improves human cognition. The effects of tPBM of the right forehead on neurophysiological activity have been previously investigated using EEG in sensor space. However, the spatial resolution of these studies is limited. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is known to facilitate a higher spatial resolution of brain source images. This study aimed to image post-tPBM effects in brain space based on both MEG and EEG measurements across the entire human brain. Methods: MEG and EEG scans were concurrently acquired for 6 min before and after 8-min of tPBM delivered using a 1,064-nm laser on the right forehead of 25 healthy participants. Group-level changes in both the MEG and EEG power spectral density with respect to the baseline (pre-tPBM) were quantified and averaged within each frequency band in the sensor space. Constrained modeling was used to generate MEG and EEG source images of post-tPBM, followed by cluster-based permutation analysis for family wise error correction (p < 0.05). Results: The 8-min tPBM enabled significant increases in alpha (8-12 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) powers across multiple cortical regions, as confirmed by MEG and EEG source images. Moreover, tPBM-enhanced oscillations in the beta band were located not only near the stimulation site but also in remote cerebral regions, including the frontal, parietal, and occipital regions, particularly on the ipsilateral side. Discussion: MEG and EEG results shown in this study demonstrated that tPBM modulates neurophysiological activity locally and in distant cortical areas. The EEG topographies reported in this study were consistent with previous observations. This study is the first to present MEG and EEG evidence of the electrophysiological effects of tPBM in the brain space, supporting the potential utility of tPBM in treating neurological diseases through the modulation of brain oscillations.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) Data Processing in Epilepsy Patients with Implanted Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) Devices.

Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is often treated with surgery or neuromodulation. Specifically, responsive neurostimulation (RNS) is a widely used therapy that is programmed to detect abnormal brain activity and intervene with tailored stimulation. Despite the success of RNS, some patients require further interventions. However, having an RNS device in situ is a hindrance to the performance of neuroimaging techniques. Magnetoencephalography (MEG), a non-invasive neurophysiologic and functional imaging technique, aids epilepsy assessment and surgery planning. MEG performed post-RNS is complicated by signal distortions. This study proposes an independent component analysis (ICA)-based approach to enhance MEG signal quality, facilitating improved assessment for epilepsy patients with implanted RNS devices. Three epilepsy patients, two with RNS implants and one without, underwent MEG scans. Preprocessing included temporal signal space separation (tSSS) and an automated ICA-based approach with MNE-Python. Power spectral density (PSD) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were analyzed, and MEG dipole analysis was conducted using single equivalent current dipole (SECD) modeling. The ICA-based noise removal preprocessing method substantially improved the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for MEG data from epilepsy patients with implanted RNS devices. Qualitative assessment confirmed enhanced signal readability and improved MEG dipole analysis. ICA-based processing markedly enhanced MEG data quality in RNS patients, emphasizing its clinical relevance.

Photobiomodulation at Different Wavelengths Boosts Mitochondrial Redox Metabolism and Hemoglobin Oxygenation: Lasers vs. Light-Emitting Diodes In Vivo.

Our group previously examined 8 min photobiomodulation (PBM) by 1064 nm laser on the human forearm in vivo to determine its significant effects on vascular hemodynamics and cytochrome c oxidase redox activity. Since PBM uses a wide array of wavelengths, in this paper, we investigated (i) whether different wavelengths of lasers induced different PBM effects, and (ii) if a light-emitting diode (LED) at a similar wavelength to a laser could induce similar PBM effects. A broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (bbNIRS) system was utilized to assess concentration changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (Δ[HbO]) and oxidized cytochrome c oxidase (Δ[oxCCO]) during and after PBM with lasers at 800 nm, 850 nm, and 1064 nm, as well as a LED at 810 nm. Two groups of 10 healthy participants were measured before, during, and after active and sham PBM on their forearms. All results were tested for significance using repeated measures ANOVA. Our results showed that (i) lasers at all three wavelengths enabled significant increases in Δ[HbO] and Δ[oxCCO] of the human forearm while the 1064 nm laser sustained the increases longer, and that (ii) the 810-nm LED with a moderate irradiance (≈135 mW/cm2) induced measurable and significant rises in Δ[HbO] and Δ[oxCCO] with respect to the sham stimulation on the human forearm.

Alterations of Cerebral Hemodynamics and Network Properties Induced by Newsvendor Problem in the Human Prefrontal Cortex.

While many publications have reported brain hemodynamic responses to decision-making under various conditions of risk, no inventory management scenarios, such as the newsvendor problem (NP), have been investigated in conjunction with neuroimaging. In this study, we hypothesized (I) that NP stimulates the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) joined with frontal polar area (FPA) significantly in the human brain, and (II) that local brain network properties are increased when a person transits from rest to the NP decision-making phase. A 77-channel functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system with wide field-of-view (FOV) was employed to measure frontal cerebral hemodynamics in response to NP in 27 healthy human subjects. NP-induced changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration, Δ[HbO], were investigated using a general linear model (GLM) and graph theory analysis (GTA). Significant activation induced by NP was shown in both DLPFC and OFC+FPA across all subjects. Specifically, higher risk NP with low-profit margins (LM) activated left-DLPFC but deactivated right-DLPFC in 14 subjects, while lower risk NP with high-profit margins (HM) stimulated both DLPFC and OFC+FPA in 13 subjects. The local efficiency, clustering coefficient, and path length of the network metrics were significantly enhanced under NP decision making. In summary, multi-channel fNIRS enabled us to identify DLPFC and OFC+FPA as key cortical regions of brain activations when subjects were making inventory-management risk decisions. We demonstrated that challenging NP resulted in the deactivation within right-DLPFC due to higher levels of stress. Also, local brain network properties were increased when a person transitioned from the rest phase to the NP decision-making phase.