Mobile neuroimaging technologies
can be used to monitor brain activity in increasingly natural everyday
settings. In particular, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measures
cortical oxygenation changes using wearable optical sensors that can be miniaturized,
built battery-operated and wireless for untethered monitoring of active
participants. While studies involving fNIRS have been recently increasing,
there are very few studies that use fNIRS in multi-brain scenarios to evaluate
the similarity in brain-to-brain activity during interactions, or neural
synchrony, and none that measure neural synchrony in toddlers with autism
spectrum disorder (ASD) in immersive social interaction. This neuroengineering
and neuroergonomics research study at the School of Biomedical Engineering,
Science and Health Systems is in collaboration with the AJ Drexel Autism
Institute and Drexel College of Medicine to examine the brain activity and
engagement of children aged 18-42 months with and without ASD while watching social
and nonsocial videos and while interacting with an adult caregiver in hopes of
better understanding the neural mechanisms of the condition.
