Neurovascular Coupling Non-Invasively Characterized by Simultaneous DC-Magnetoencephalography and Time-Resolved Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Functional brain imaging methods map neuronal activations indirectly through the accompanying neurovascular response. However, awareness is increasing that the link between neuronal and vascular task-related responses is all but a simple linear transform. Recently, we have shown that in a technically complementary approach neurovascular coupling can be analyzed non-invasively in the human brain in principle by simultaneous DC-magnetoencephalography (DC-MEG with brain-to-sensor modulation) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). As an extension to the first non-selective NIRS and DC-MEG recordings, we demonstrate…