The Potential of Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) for Motion-Intensive Game Paradigms

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is gaining popularity as a non-invasive neuroimaging technique in a broad range of fields, including the context of gaming and serious games. However, the capabilities of fNIRS are still underutilized. FNIRS is less prone to motion artifacts and more portable in comparison to other neuroimaging methods and it is therefore ideal for experimental designs which involve physical activity. In this paper, the goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of fNIRS for the recording of cortical activation during a motion-intensive task, namely basketball dribbling. FNIRS recordings over sensorimotor regions were conducted in a block-design on 20 participants, who dribbled a basketball with their dominant right hand. Signal quality for task-related concentration changes in oxy-Hb and deoxy-Hb has been investigated by means of the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). A statistical comparison of average CNR from the fNIRS signal revealed the expected effect of significantly higher CNR over the left as compared to the right sensorimotor region. Our findings demonstrate that fNIRS delivers sufficient signal quality to measure hemispheric activation differences during a motion-intensive motoric task like basketball dribbling and bare indications for future endeavors with fNIRS in less constraint settings.