Browsing by Author "Urban, Karolina"
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- ItemOpen AccessMeasuring Brain Connectivity and Hemodynamic Alterations Following Pediatric Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in the Primary Motor Cortex(2015-01-08) Urban, Karolina; Dunn, Jeffrey Frank; Barlow, Karen MariaConcussion, or mild traumatic brain injury, is a growing concern especially among the pediatric population. Symptoms may persist beyond one month after injury and result in long term disability called Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS). There is a lack of measures to quantitatively monitor and explore pathophysiological mechanisms of PCS. We hypothesized that since fiber tracts are often impacted in concussion, functional activation and inter-hemispheric brain communication may be impaired. We used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to quantify the magnitude of activation and inter-hemispheric communication between motor cortices using a coherence analysis. Subjects completed a resting state and tapping paradigm. We detected differences between patients and controls in coherence, suggesting alterations in inter-hemispheric communication. Given the critical need for a quantitative biomarker for recovery following a concussion, we present this data to highlight the potential of fNIRS, coupled with coherence analysis, as a sensitive measure to detect functional changes.