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Cortivision SPECTRUM

The Cortivision SPECTRUM is a lightweight, wearable, wireless fNIRS platform that can accommodate two bundles of 12 LED sources and 8 SiPD detectors. Two Spectrum amplifiers can be used together for a maximal setup with 48 sources and 32 detectors – more than enough for whole head fNIRS coverage.

Optode positions are fully configurable within the 10-5 EEG system for researchers who prefer denser arrays. Any source can be positioned near a detector in order to create a short channel – the proportion and positioning of short channels in your fNIRS montage will now be entirely up to you. The optode bundles also come with an integrated gyroscope and accelerometer for easier movement artifact control during data pre-processing. The movement sensor is optode-shaped and can be positioned into its own holder on the cap.

The system includes EasyCap caps in size increments of 2 cm (adult sizes 54 to 60 cm), allowing for better fit to participants’ heads. The same caps can accommodate holders for EEG electrodes in case you want to do combined EEG-fNIRS research.

It is easy to use the SPECTRUM in combined modality research and it can be synced with presentation software and other hardware through LabStreaming Layer (LSL, https://labstreaminglayer.org/#/) or through a 3-bit port that can receive hardware TTL triggers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the penetration limit for fNIRS in tissue? / How deep can one probe with NIRS?

Light intensity is heavily attenuated in tissue and falls off exponentially from the illumination point. The maximum achievable probing depth of NIRS is limited by the illumination strength – determined by the thermal damaging threshold – and the detection sensitivity. Imaging depth strongly depends on the tissue type and the application. Typical achievable transmission limits of NIRS are about 12 cm for breast tissue, and 6 cm on the arm or leg. For brain imaging, the probing depth of NIRS is about 3 cm.

What is the achievable spatial resolution of NIRS?

Diffuse optical tomography is a low-resolution technique owing to the physics of light propagation in scattering media. Depending on the composition and size of the target tissue, the resolution is on the order of 5-10 mm.

What is the temporal resolution of NIRS?

The temporal resolution of an fNIRS device depends on its hardware as well as how its individual channels operate with respect to one another. Through time-multiplexing of the source firing, some systems can achieve anywhere between 3-25Hz depending on the optode montage. For a particular application, scan speed can be traded off against the desired coverage area (field-of-view) or source density (image resolution).

What types of scientific investigative studies is NIRS technology currently used in?

Language, Cognition
Learning, Memory
Sensory, Motor, Visual
Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Neurofeedback
Acute Care, Ischemia
Autism
Animal Imaging: Rats
Animal Imaging: Monkeys
Child studies
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Studies
Multimodal studies NIRS used simultaneously with EEG, TMS, eye-tracking, tDCS, and other modalities.
Behavioral studies
Motorcontrol & movement related studies
Sports performance studies