Vortrag

Datum:		15.3.2007
Uhrzeit:		10:00 Uhr
Ort:		Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Bau, Hörsaal
Titel:		"Non-invasive imaging and spectroscopy of the adult brain by pulsed near-infrared light"
Vortragender:		Prof. Alessandro Torricelli Department of Physics, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Abstract:		The possibility to non-invasively monitor hemodynamics (i.e. evolution of blood distribution within a biological tissue) and oxidative metabolism (i.e. oxygenation status) in the brain is a challenging and important task. Monitoring of cerebral activity in response to various stimuli (motor, visual, cognitive) is possible, and thus it can help in the study of cognitive processes, diagnosis of mental diseases, localization of brain injuries. This emerging field was fostered by the capabilities offered by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), electroencephalography (EEG), and recently by near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). The talk will present the activities of the Biomedical Optics Group at the Department of Physics of Politecnico di Milano in the development of compact, multichannel instruments for NIRS and in the application of NIRS for non-invasive imaging and spectroscopy of the adult head. The innovative aspect of the research is the use of time-resolved instrumentation like picosecond pulsed lasers and fast and sensitive photodetectors. The potential advantages of time-resolved NIRS are the discrimination of the absorption coefficient (directly related to tissue constituents) and the scattering coefficient (related to tissue structures), a higher penetration depth and spatial resolution as compared to continuous-wave NIRS. In particular results will be shown on the non-invasive assessment of the optical properties of the adult head by multidistance time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy, on simultaneous fMRI and time-resolved NIRS measurements, and on the use of novel strategies for diffuse optical imaging.
Veranstalter:		Abteilung 8