Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Assessment of Haemodynamic Activation in the Cerebral Cortex – A Review in Developmental Psychology and Child Psychiatry

This chapter aims to shed light on developmental cognitive neuroscience studies that use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to examine the cortical response in developmental psychology and child psychiatry. NIRS was first applied to the human brain in 1977 (Jöbsis, 1977) for the noninvasive measurement of the haemodynamic activation in the cerebral cortex. NIRS is advantageous over other neuroimaging methods in terms of its ease of measurement and low cost. Therefore, extensive studies have investigated neural correlates using the NIRS technique in healthy people and in neurological or psychiatric patients. Furthermore, NIRS has been applied to multiple age groups from neonates to adults. It is beyond the scope of this chapter to provide an exhaustive list of the neuroscience research based on NIRS. Here, we focus mainly on the studies that examine cognitive function from the viewpoint of developmental cognitive neuroscience.