Resting-state brain networks in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study

Abstract

<b>Significance:</b> There is an emerging need for convenient and continuous bedside monitoring of full-term newborns with hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) to determine whether early intervention is required. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based resting-state brain network analysis, which could provide an effective evaluation method, remains to be extensively studied. <b>Aim:</b> Our study aims to verify the feasibility of fNIRS-based resting-state brain networks for evaluating brain function in infants with HIBD to provide a new and effective means for clinical research in neonatal HIBD. <b>Approach:</b> Thirteen neonates with HIBD were scanned using fNIRS in the resting state. The brain network properties were explored to attempt to extract effective features as recognition indicators. <b>Results:</b> Compared with healthy controls, newborns with HIBD showed decreased brain functional connectivity. Specifically, there were severe losses of long-range functional connectivity of the contralateral parietal-temporal lobe, contralateral parietal-frontal lobe, and contralateral parietal lobe. The node degree showed a widespread decrease in the left frontal middle gyrus, left superior frontal gyrus dorsal, and right central posterior gyrus. However, newborns with HIBD showed a significantly higher local network efficiency (* <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>p</mml:mi> <mml:mo><</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.05</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:math> ). Subsequently, network indicators based on small-worldness, local efficiency, modularity, and normalized clustering coefficient were extracted for HIBD identification with the accuracy observed as 79.17%. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our findings indicate that fNIRS-based resting-state brain network analysis could support early HIBD diagnosis.