0000000000598706

AUTHOR

Raimondo Rizzo

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy System Validation for Simultaneous EEG-FNIRS Measurements

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) applied to brain monitoring has been gaining increasing relevance in the last years due to its not invasive nature and the capability to work in combination with other well–known techniques such as the EEG. The possible use cases span from neural-rehabilitation to early diagnosis of some neural diseases. In this work a wireline FPGA–based fNIRS system, that use SiPM sensors and dual-wavelength LED sources, has been designed and validated to work with a commercial EEG machine without reciprocal interference.

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Exploring FPGA Based Lock-in Techniques for Brain Monitoring Applications

Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems for e-health applications usually suffer of poor signal detection mainly due to a low end-to-end signal to noise ratio of the electronics chain. Lock-In Amplifiers (LIA) historically represent a powerful technique helping to improve performances in such circumstances. In this work it has been designed and implemented a digital LIA system, based on a Zynq® Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), trying to explore if this technique might improve fNIRS system performances. More broadly, FPGA based solution flexibility has been investigated, with particular emphasis applied to digital filter parameters, needed in the digital LIA, and i…

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Fiberless, Multi-Channel fNIRS-EEG System Based on Silicon Photomultipliers: Towards Sensitive and Ecological Mapping of Brain Activity and Neurovascular Coupling

Portable neuroimaging technologies can be employed for long-term monitoring of neurophysiological and neuropathological states. Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and Electroencephalography (EEG) are highly suited for such a purpose. Their multimodal integration allows the evaluation of hemodynamic and electrical brain activity together with neurovascular coupling. An innovative fNIRS-EEG system is here presented. The system integrated a novel continuous-wave fNIRS component and a modified commercial EEG device. fNIRS probing relied on fiberless technology based on light emitting diodes and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). SiPMs are sensitive semiconductor detectors, whose large…

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Exploring FPGA‐Based Lock‐In Techniques for Brain  Monitoring Applications

Functional near‐infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) systems for e‐health applications usually suffer from poor signal detection, mainly due to a low end‐to‐end signal‐to‐noise ratio of the electronics chain. Lock‐in amplifiers (LIA) historically represent a powerful technique helping to improve performance in such circumstances. In this work a digital LIA system, based on a Zynq® field programmable gate array (FPGA) has been designed and implemented, in an attempt to explore if this technique might improve fNIRS system performance. More broadly, FPGA‐based solution flexibility has been investigated, with particular emphasis applied to digital filter parameters, needed in the digital LIA, and its …

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FPGA based digital lock-in amplifier for fNIRS systems

Lock-In Amplifiers (LIA) represent a powerful technique helping to improve signals detectability when low signal to noise ratios are experienced. Continuous Wave functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (CW-fNIRS) systems for e-health applications usually suffer of poor detection due to the presence of strong attenuations of the optical recovering path and therefore small signals are severely dipped in a high noise floor. In this work a digital LIA system, implemented on a Zynq® Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), has been designed and tested to verify the quality of the developed solution, when applied in fNIRS systems. Experimental results have shown the goodness of the proposed solutions.

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Wearable, Fiber-less, Multi-Channel System for Continuous Wave Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Based on Silicon Photomultipliers Detectors and Lock-In Amplification

Development and in-vivo validation of a Continuous Wave (CW) functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) system is presented. The system is wearable, fiber-less, multi-channel (16×16, 256 channels) and expandable and it relies on silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for light detection. SiPMs are inexpensive, low voltage and resilient semiconductor light detectors, whose performances are analogous to photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The advantage of SiPMs with respect to PMTs is that they allow direct contact with the scalp and avoidance of optical fibers. In fact, the coupling of SiPMs and light emitting diodes (LEDs) allows the transfer of the analog signals to and from the scalp through thin …

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