Research reportFunctional connectivity in the brain in joint attention skills using near infrared spectroscopy and imaging

- A model was implemented to diffuse optical imaging measurements in response to joint-attention tasks.
- It can detect the strength of autoregressive process and directional propagation.
- No significant difference observed between non-joint attention and rest condition.
- The significant differences in brain connectivity observed between others.

In this study, the changes in activation in terms of Oxy-Hemoglobin (HbO) and Deoxy-Hemoglobin (HbR) were detected in response to join attention based tasks in normal adults using near infrared spectroscopy and imaging. With these detections, functional connectivity between the left and right sides of frontal region of the brain was measured and modeled by a lagged covariance structural equation modeling (SEM). Statistical analysis was performed to assess the difference in the path coefficients amongst different stimuli (joint attention, non-joint attention, and baseline rest). The results demonstrate that the left and right sides of the frontal region of the brain interacted with each other distinctly in response to the joint and non-joint attention based stimuli.