Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) – a promising brain imaging method in Psychiatry?

Background: Many psychiatric diseases are associated with alterations in brain function. This has been shown with multiple brain imaging approaches, in particular with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). While fMRI is undoubtly the imaging method with the best spatial resolution providing a neuroanatomical image of the brain within the same measurement, it's setting is not optimal for patients with psychiatric illnesses. In particular the lying position, the fixation of the head, the extremely narrow surrounding and the loud EPI sequences are stressing for psychiatric patients and do definitely affect…