Frontal activation and connectivity using near-infrared spectroscopy: verbal fluency language study.

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is an optical technique with high temporal resolution and reasonably good spatial resolution, which allows non invasive measurement of the blood oxygenation of tissue. The current work is focused in assessing and correlating brain activation, connectivity and cortical lateralization of the frontal cortex in response to language-based stimuli, using NIRS. Experimental studies were performed on 15 normal right-handed adults, wherein the participants were presented with a verbal fluency task.