Functional brain monitoring

Keywords functional brain monitoring near infrared spectroscopy diffuse optical tomography. 

K. Izzetoglu, G. Yurtsever, A. Bozkurt, and S. Bunce. Functional brain monitoring via nir based optical spectroscopy. In Bioengineering Conference, 2003 IEEE 29th Annual, Proceedings of, pages 335-336, 2003. 

Functional brain imaging, which monitors blood flow or glucose utilization through Positron Emission Tomography (PET) or functional (f) MRI ... 

Since the early 90s, noninvasive functional brain imaging of humans using NIR methods have been slowly gaining momentum despite existence of more established imaging modailties, such as PET, fMRI, and EEG. Part of the reason as stated previously, is because of its relatively high temporal resolution and its ability to monitor multiple tissue chromophores. The technique has been applied to adult as well as infant studies. NIR method is particularly suited for infant studies as the equipment, at least the CW kind, are minimally restraining, relatively safe, and portable [67]. Most neonatal studies focus on sensory stimulation such as visual, auditory and olfactory stimulations [69] [101] [89] [115] [6] [5], and cerebral disfunction [70, 71]. Our review will focus primarily on adult studies with some emphasis on defense and security applications. 

In Vivo Biosensing. In vivo biosensing involves the use of a sensitive probe to make chemical and physical measurements in living, functioning systems (60—62). Thus it is no longer necessary to decapitate an animal in order to study its brain. Rather, an electrochemical biosensor is employed to monitor interceUular or intraceUular events. These probes must be small, fast, sensitive, selective, stable, mgged, and have a linear response. 

Various optical detection methods have been used to measure pH in vivo. Fluorescence ratio imaging microscopy using an inverted microscope was used to determine intracellular pH in tumor cells [5], NMR spectroscopy was used to continuously monitor temperature-induced pH changes in fish to study the role of intracellular pH in the maintenance of protein function [27], Additionally, NMR spectroscopy was used to map in-vivo extracellular pH in rat brain gliomas [3], Electron spin resonance (ESR), which is operated at a lower resonance, has been adapted for in-vivo pH measurements because it provides a sufficient RF penetration for deep body organs [28], The non-destructive determination of tissue pH using near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) has been employed for pH measurements in the muscle during... 

There are few monitoring studies on APIs in fish tissues however, multiple APIs were targeted in fish monitoring. The concentrations across tissues vary by many orders of magnitude as a function of the concentration of exposure, the species and specific tissue, with bile often serving to concentrate the most and the brain the least [107]. 

Meanwhile, after interacting with the receptor, the actions of the neurotransmitter must be terminated by means of its reabsorption (8) back into the neuron that originally released it. This is called reuptake. A secondary method of neurotransmitter inactivation is by enzymatic conversion (9) into a chemical that can no longer interact with your brain. Once the neurotransmitter is enzymatically inactivated, it is removed from the brain into the bloodstream (10). Such byproducts of the ordinary hustle and bustle of the brain can be easily monitored in many of our body fluids, and this information can be used to determine whether our brains are functioning normally. 

PBDEs Considered the new PCBs, polybrominated diphenyl ethers are a group of brominated flame retardants used in lots of products, including the foam in couches and mattresses, and plastic TV and computer monitors (Dell and HP, among others, have banned them). One of the reasons PBDEs are so hard to avoid is that they re not bound to the molecules in materials, so toxic residue can escape in the form of dust. Most kinds of PBDEs have been banned in Europe since 2004, and American women carry ten to seventy times as many PBDEs in their breast milk, tissues, and blood as Europeans do. Exposure to PBDEs during fetal development can negatively affect how the brain functions. 

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