Paperdoi:10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x
Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy
Communications Biology 8(1):1553, 2025
TL;DR
A high-density speckle contrast optical spectroscopy system with 7 laser sources and 17 CMOS cameras (50 channels) mapped changes in human cerebral blood flow over a 7.6 × 6.6 cm patch of the head. In 15 people doing a Stroop task it produced activation maps with up to a 6.6 % flow change, and the raw data and processing code are openly released.
- Form factor: head
Abstract
Recently, speckle contrast optical spectroscopy (SCOS) enabled non-invasive, high signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) human cerebral blood flow (CBF) measurements, relevant for both neuroscience and clinical monitoring of diseases with CBF dysregulation. Single-channel SCOS measurements limit the information obtained to only one location on the head. In this work, we develop a multi-channel SCOS system to map spatial heterogeneity in CBF changes during human brain activation. Using a galvanometer, we temporally multiplex a free-space laser to 7 source fibers positioned at different locations on the head. Diffuse light collected from the tissue is captured by fiber bundles projecting to 17 complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras, resulting in 50 source-detector channels measuring optical density (OD) and relative CBF changes covering an area of 7.6 cm by 6.6 cm on the head. We validate the spatial specificity and stability of the system using a liquid flow phantom. We then measure brain activity during a word-color Stroop task in 15 subjects and obtain brain activation maps. The average signal changes in the channel showing the largest activation is 1.7×10-2 in ΔOD and 6.6% in CBF.
Verbatim from Europe PMC (opens in a new tab) · Licence: cc by-nc-nd
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Tasks & signals
Signals
Keywords
How it works
- Wavelengths
- NIR laser (λ not in abstract)
Cite this paper
Kim, B., Howard, A. C., Cheng, T. Y., Anderson, J. E., Zimmermann, B. B., Hazen, E. S., Carlton, L. B., Robinson, M. B., Renna, M., Yücel, M. A., Carp, S. A., Franceschini, M. A., Boas, D. A., & Cheng, X. (2025). Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy. Communications Biology , 2025, 8(1), 1553. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x
Kim, Byungchan, Alexander C. Howard, Tom Y. Cheng, Jessica E. Anderson, Bernhard B Zimmermann, Eric Shearer Hazen, and Laura B. Carlton, et al. 2025. "Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy." Communications Biology , 2025 8 (1): 1553. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x.
Kim, B., Howard, A. C., Cheng, T. Y., Anderson, J. E., Zimmermann, B. B., Hazen, E. S. and Carlton, L. B. et al. (2025) 'Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy', Communications Biology , 2025, 8(1), p. 1553. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x.
Kim, Byungchan, et al. "Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy." Communications Biology , 2025, vol. 8, no. 1, 2025, p. 1553. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x.
B. Kim et al., "Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy," Communications Biology , 2025, vol. 8, no. 1, p. 1553, 2025, doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x.
@article{kim2025mapping,
title = {{Mapping human cerebral blood flow with high-density, multi-channel speckle contrast optical spectroscopy}},
author = {Kim, Byungchan and Howard, Alexander C. and Cheng, Tom Y. and Anderson, Jessica E. and Zimmermann, Bernhard B. and Hazen, Eric Shearer and Carlton, Laura B. and Robinson, Mitchell B. and Renna, Marco and Yücel, Meryem A. and Carp, Stefan A. and Franceschini, Maria Angela and Boas, David A. and Cheng, Xiaojun},
year = {2025},
journal = {Communications Biology , 2025},
volume = {8},
number = {1},
pages = {1553},
doi = {10.1038/s42003-025-08915-x}
}Added to the ChatPPG research hub
