为了研究人脑双侧语言皮层区自发活动的同步性以及与语言能力的关系,使用光学脑成像来检测具有不同语言能力的被试在语言皮层区静息态下的活动,包括皮层含氧血红蛋白和脱氧血红蛋白的自发波动.共有3组被试参加实验,包括25名自闭症儿童、12名正常儿童和20名正常成年人.采用44个光学通道,记录被试双侧额下与颞叶皮层区8 min的自发波动.在滤波及去掉全局系统成分后,计算每个左右对称通道间的时域相关系数,由此反映左右相应通道位置处皮层活动的同步性.计算每个被试双侧对称感兴趣区域(如额下皮层、颞叶皮层)的平均相关系数,并定量比较3组被试的双侧平均相关系数r.结果表明,对于颞叶语言区含氧血红蛋白的双侧相关性,自闭症儿童的(r =0.306±0.039)比正常儿童的(r=0.472±0.037)显著降低(P =0.048),儿童的比成年人的(r=0.639±0.020)显著要低(P =0.00058),成年男性的(r=0.604±0.035)比成年女性的(r=0.673±0.017)略低,但两者差异不显著(P>0.05).研究表明,光学脑成像可能提供对人脑语言皮层区网络功能定性和定量的评价.
To investigate the synchronization of human bilateral cortical spontaneous activities in language areas and the relationship between the synchronization and language ability, optical brain imaging was used to measure resting state cortical activities in language areas of subjects with different language ability. The measured signals included temporal fluctuations of oxygenated- and deoxygenated-hemoglobin. Three groups of subjects participated in the experiment, including 25 children with autism, 11 normal children and 20 normal adults. Forty-four optical channels were used in the experiment to record the spontaneous fluctuations for 8 minutes from bilateral inferior and temporal cortices. After the recorded signals were filtered and processed to remove the global systemic interference, the temporal correlation coefficient was calculated for each channel pair located symmetrically on the left and the right hemisphere. This correlation coefficient reflects the synchronization of activities arising from cortical regions right beneath the channel pair. The average inter- hemispheric correlation coefficients for the symmetric regions of interest ( e. g. , inferior frontal cortex, temporal cortex) were also calculated and quantitatively compared between the three groups of subjects. Our data show the average inter-hemispheric correlations for temporal language cortices are different between subject groups: the correlation for children with autism ( r = 0. 306 ± 0. 039 ) is significantly ( P = 0.048 ) lower than that for normal children ( r = 0. 472 ± 0. 037 ), normal children is significantly ( P = 0. 00058 ) lower than normal adults( r = 0. 639 ± 0. 020), and adult males ( r = 0. 604 ±0. 035 ) is slightly lower than adult females ( r = 0. 673 ± 0. 017), but not significantly (P 〉 0.05 ). These results imply optical brain imaging may provide qualitative and quantitative evaluation on the functioning of human brain language network.