Identification of abnormal motor cortex activation patterns in children with cerebral palsy by functional near-infrared spectroscopy

We demonstrate the utility of functional near-infrared spec- troscopy fNIRS as a tool for physicians to study cortical plasticity in children with cerebral palsy CP. Motor cortex activation patterns were studied in five healthy children and five children with CP 8.4±2.3 years old in both groups performing a finger-tapping pro- tocol. Spatial distance from center and area difference and temporal duration and time-to-peak image metrics are proposed as potential biomarkers for differentiating abnormal cortical activation in children with CP from healthy pediatric controls. In addition, a similarity image-analysis concept is presented that unveils areas that have simi- lar activation patterns as that of the maximum activation area, but are not discernible by visual inspection of standard activation images. Metrics derived from the images presenting areas of similarity are shown to be sensitive identifiers of abnormal activation patterns in children with CP. Importantly, the proposed similarity concept and related metrics may be applicable to other studies for the identifica- tion of cortical activation patterns by fNIRS. © 2010 Society of Photo-Optical