THE FUNCTIONAL STUDY OF NEONATAL CEREBRAL CORTEX BY MEANS OF OPTICAL TOPOGRAPHY

Key words: Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy, Optical topography, Functional neuroimaging, Neonatal brain

Optical topography is a non-invasive functional brain imaging technique, which uses light in the near infra-red spectrum and allows to detect hemodynamic changes in the cerebral cortex. Specifically, it measures relative changes in oxygenated, de-oxygenated and total haemoglobin concentrations, reflecting variations in the cerebral blood flow and volume. This technique does not need sedation and it is safe: consequently, it appears particularly feasible to study cerebral neonatal development. Neonatal cerebral cortex activations associated both with simple sensory stimuli and with more complex cognitive or affectiverelational have been detected. In neonatology, a promising research field is related to the detection of cerebral hemodynamic response observed in specific conditions (such as encephalopathies and perinatal asphyxia).