PI: Sossena Wood and Marc Dandin
Co-PI(s): Pulkit Grover and Siyang Zheng
University: Carnegie Mellon University
Industry partner: Precision Neuroscopics, Inc,
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an increasingly popular non-invasive and portable optical tool used in medicine and neuroscience at the bedside and in mobile environments. fNIRS is uniquely positioned to compete with its non-portable gold-standard hemodynamic imaging and magnetic resonance imaging. However, hair and skin are critical barriers to improving fNIRS’ reliability, especially for curlier hair types and darker skin colors. Our team, including our Industry partner, has the expertise and has made tremendous strides to make fNIRS systems and other neurotechnologies more inclusive. In this one-year collaboration with Precision Neuroscopics, we will develop and improve the contact between fNIRS sources/detectors and the scalp, and conduct experiments to assess our system’s benefits (e.g. in SNR). We will design, test, and compare our custom fiber holder prototypes(s) for fNIRS systems to commercial probes and test them on participants with various Andre Walker hair types. Our prototype is expected to substantially outperform the commercially available probes regarding signal quality and reliability. The prototype from this project will improve the optical industry, increase the scientific knowledge of the impedance of hair on commercial fNIRS probes, and aid in the efforts to overcome hair challenges and improve healthcare inequities in both PA and worldwide.