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fNIRS reproducibility varies with data quality, analysis pipelines, and researcher experience.
(Communications Biology, 2025-08-04) Yücel, Meryem A; Luke, Robert; Mesquita, Rickson C; von Lühmann, Alexander; Mehler, David M A; Lührs, Michael; Gemignani, Jessica; Abdalmalak, Androu; Albrecht, Franziska; de Almeida Ivo, Iara; Artemenko, Christina; Ashton, Kira; Augustynowicz, Paweł; Bajracharya, Aahana; Bannier, Elise; Barth, Beatrix; Bayet, Laurie; Behrendt, Jacqueline; Khani, Hadi Borj; Borot, Lenaic; Borrell, Jordan A; Brigadoi, Sabrina; Brink, Kolby; Bulgarelli, Chiara; Caruyer, Emmanuel; Chen, Hsin-Chin; Copeland, Christopher; Corouge, Isabelle; Cutini, Simone; Di Lorenzo, Renata; Dresler, Thomas; Eggebrecht, Adam T; Ehlis, Ann-Christine; Erdoğan, Sinem B; Evenblij, Danielle; Ferdous, Talukdar Raian; Fracalossi, Victoria; Franzén, Erika; Gallagher, Anne; Gerloff, Christian; Gervain, Judit; Goldhamer, Noy; Gossé, Louisa K; Guérin, Ségolène M R; Guevara, Edgar; Hosseini, S M Hadi; Innes-Brown, Hamish; Int-Veen, Isabell; Jaffe-Dax, Sagi; Jégou, Nolwenn; Kawaguchi, Hiroshi; Kelsey, Caroline; Kent, Michaela; Kessler, Roman; Kherbawy, Nadeen; Klein, Franziska; Kochavi, Nofar; Kolisnyk, Matthew; Koren, Yogev; Kroczek, Agnes; Kvist, Alexander; Lin, Chen-Hao Paul; Löw, Andreas; Luan, Siying; Mao, Darren; Martins, Giovani G; Middell, Eike; Montero-Hernandez, Samuel; Mutlu, Murat Can; Novi, Sergio L; Paquette, Natacha; Paranawithana, Ishara; Parmet, Yisrael; Peelle, Jonathan E; Peng, Ke; Peng, Tommy; Pereira, João; Pinti, Paola; Pollonini, Luca; Jounghani, Ali Rahimpour; Reindl, Vanessa; Ringels, Wiebke; Schopp, Betti; Schulte, Alina; Schulte-Rüther, Martin; Segel, Ari; Ala, Tirdad Seifi; Shader, Maureen J; Shavit, Hadas; Sherafati, Arefeh; Soltanlou, Mojtaba; Sorger, Bettina; Speh, Emma; Stubbs, Kevin D; Stute, Katharina; Sullivan, Eileen F; Tak, Sungho; Tipado, Zeus; Tremblay, Julie; Vahidi, Homa; Van Eeckhoutte, Maaike; Vannasing, Phetsamone; Vergotte, Gregoire; Vincent, Marion A; Weiss, Eileen; Yang, Dalin; Yükselen, Gülnaz; Zapała, Dariusz; Zemanek, Vit
As data analysis pipelines grow more complex in brain imaging research, understanding how methodological choices affect results is essential for ensuring reproducibility and transparency. This is especially relevant for functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), a rapidly growing technique for assessing brain function in naturalistic settings and across the lifespan, yet one that still lacks standardized analysis approaches. In the fNIRS Reproducibility Study Hub (FRESH) initiative, we asked 38 research teams worldwide to independently analyze the same two fNIRS datasets. Despite using different pipelines, nearly 80% of teams agreed on group-level results, particularly when hypotheses were strongly supported by literature. Teams with higher self-reported analysis confidence, which correlated with years of fNIRS experience, showed greater agreement. At the individual level, agreement was lower but improved with better data quality. The main sources of variability were related to how poor-quality data were handled, how responses were modeled, and how statistical analyses were conducted. These findings suggest that while flexible analytical tools are valuable, clearer methodological and reporting standards could greatly enhance reproducibility. By identifying key drivers of variability, this study highlights current challenges and offers direction for improving transparency and reliability in fNIRS research.
Abdominal Vagus Nerve Stimulation Increases Firing in the Rat Locus Coeruleus.
(Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 2025-06-20) Hyakumura, Tomoko; Payne, Sophie C; Matarazzo, Jerico V; Adams, Wendy K; Fallon, James B
Cervical vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a clinically available treatment for refractory epilepsy and depression. Animal studies show that electrical activation of the noradrenergic brain region, locus coeruleus (LC), is essential for the therapeutic effects of cervical VNS for the treatment of these conditions. Cervical VNS often causes side effects such as coughing, headache, and apnea-hypopnea. Such side effects can be mitigated by reducing stimulation intensity; however, evidence suggests this reduces efficacy of treatment. Abdominal VNS, targeting the vagus nerve below the nerve branches that cause these side effects, is an alternative strategy to deliver VNS.
Objective assessment of tinnitus laterality.
(PLOS One, 2025-06-16) Shoushtarian, Mehrnaz; Esmaelpoor, Jamal; Bravo, Michelle M G; Fallon, James B
Tinnitus is a condition which involves hearing sounds not present externally. This common condition can lead to a range of symptoms, including depression, resulting in a severe impact on quality of life. There are currently no reliable treatments for tinnitus. One factor hindering development of treatments is the lack of identified subtypes of tinnitus with different underlying patterns of neural activity to enable more personalised treatments and more accurate monitoring of treatment effects. It has been suggested that the perceived laterality of tinnitus, i.e., whether the sound is perceived unilaterally or bilaterally, characterizes tinnitus subtypes with different underlying neural changes. Our previous work showed sensitivity of a non-invasive brain imaging technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to tinnitus-related changes in brain activity. In this study we aimed to investigate differentiating unilateral and bilateral tinnitus using fNIRS recordings and functional network analysis. We performed fNIRS recordings on 18 individuals with unilateral tinnitus (11 left-sided and 7 right-sided), 26 individuals bilateral tinnitus and 18 controls. fNIRS signals were recorded at rest and in response to auditory and visual stimuli. Using network analysis applied to fNIRS recordings, we derived modules characterized by strong connectivity among channels within a module and weak connectivity among channels in different modules. We then calculated two measures, Module Laterality and Modified Module Laterality, to quantify asymmetry in modules. Our findings showed significant difference in Module Laterality in individuals with unilateral tinnitus compared to both bilateral tinnitus and controls. Within the unilateral tinnitus group, Modified Module Laterality showed significant difference between individuals who experienced left-sided tinnitus compared to right-sided tinnitus. Differentiating tinnitus with distinct laterality precepts has the potential to assist in developing and monitoring relevant treatments by revealing neural mechanisms related to each subtype.
Spatially precise activation of the mouse cochlea with a multi-channel hybrid cochlear implant.
(Journal of Neural Engineering, 2025-05-06) Azees, Ajmal A; Thompson, Alex C; Ruther, Patrick; Ajay, Elise A; Zhou, Jenny; Aregueta Robles, Ulises A; Garrett, David J; Quigley, Anita; Fallon, James B; Richardson, Rachael T
Cochlear implants are among the few clinical interventions for people with severe or profound hearing loss. However, current spread during monopolar electrical stimulation results in poor spectral resolution, prompting the exploration of optical stimulation as an alternative approach. Enabled by introducing light-sensitive ion channels into auditory neurons (optogenetics), optical stimulation has been shown to activate a more discrete neural area with minimal overlap between each frequency channel during simultaneous stimulation. However, the utility of optogenetic approaches is uncertain due to the low fidelity of responses to light and high-power requirements compared to electrical stimulation.Hybrid stimulation, combining sub-threshold electrical and optical pulses, has been shown to improve fidelity and use less light, but the impact on spread of activation and channel summation using a translatable, multi-channel hybrid implant is unknown. This study examined these factors during single channel and simultaneous multi-channel hybrid stimulation in transgenic mice expressing the ChR2/H134R opsin. Acutely deafened mice were implanted with a hybrid cochlear array containing alternating light emitting diodes and platinum electrode rings. Spiking activity in the inferior colliculus was recorded during electrical-only or hybrid stimulation in which optical and electrical stimuli were both at sub-threshold intensities. Thresholds, spread of activation, and threshold shifts during simultaneous hybrid stimulation were compared to electrical-only stimulation.The electrical current required to reach activation threshold during hybrid stimulation was reduced by 7.3 dB compared to electrical-only stimulation (< 0.001). The activation width measured at two levels of discrimination above threshold and channel summation during simultaneous hybrid stimulation were significantly lower compared to electrical-only stimulation (< 0.05), but there was no spatial advantage of hybrid stimulation at higher electrical stimulation levels.Reduced channel interaction would facilitate multi-channel simultaneous stimulation, thereby enhancing the perception of temporal fine structure which is crucial for music and speech in noise.
The fNIRS glossary project: a consensus-based resource for functional near-infrared spectroscopy terminology.
(Neurophotonics, 2025-04-18) Stute, Katharina; Gossé, Louisa K; Montero-Hernandez, Samuel; Perkins, Guy A; Yücel, Meryem A; Cutini, Simone; Durduran, Turgut; Ehlis, Ann-Christine; Ferrari, Marco; Gervain, Judit; Mesquita, Rickson C; Orihuela-Espina, Felipe; Quaresima, Valentina; Scholkmann, Felix; Tachtsidis, Ilias; Torricelli, Alessandro; Wabnitz, Heidrun; Yodh, Arjun G; Carp, Stefan A; Dehghani, Hamid; Fang, Qianqian; Fantini, Sergio; Hoshi, Yoko; Niu, Haijing; Obrig, Hellmuth; Klein, Franziska; Artemenko, Christina; Bajracharya, Aahana; Barth, Beatrix; Bartkowski, Christian; Borot, Lénac; Bulgarelli, Chiara; Busch, David R; Chojak, Malgorzata; DeFreitas, Jason M; Diprossimo, Laura; Dresler, Thomas; Eken, Aykut; Elsherif, Mahmoud M; Emberson, Lauren L; Exner, Anna; Ferdous, Talukdar Raian; Fiske, Abigail; Forbes, Samuel H; Gemignani, Jessica; Gerloff, Christian; Guérin, Ségolène M R; Guevara, Edgar; Hamilton, Antonia F de C; Hadi Hosseini, S M; Jain, Divya; Kerr-German, Anastasia N; Kong, Haiyan; Kroczek, Agnes; Longhurst, Jason K; Lührs, Michael; MacLennan, Rob J; Mehler, David M A; Meidenbauer, Kimberly L; Moreau, David; Mutlu, Murat C; Orti, Renato; Paranawithana, Ishara; Pinti, Paola; Jounghani, Ali Rahimpour; Reindl, Vanessa; Ross, Nicholas A; Sanchez-Alonso, Sara; Seidel-Marzi, Oliver; Shukla, Mohinish; Usama, Syed A; Talati, Musa; Vergotte, Grégoire; Atif Yaqub, M; Yu, Chia-Chuan; Zainodini, Hanieh
A shared understanding of terminology is essential for clear scientific communication and minimizing misconceptions. This is particularly challenging in rapidly expanding, interdisciplinary domains that utilize functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), where researchers come from diverse backgrounds and apply their expertise in fields such as engineering, neuroscience, and psychology.