Functional near-infrared spectroscopy: Systematic mapping of abnormal brain function features in neurological disorders

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy quantifies cerebral hemodynamic signals by capturing oxygenation-dependent changes in hemoglobin in a noninvasive, portable, and ecologically valid manner, providing a unique insight into neurovascular coupling. However, functional imaging biomarkers with high ecological validity for neurological disorders such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury are lacking, limiting the mechanistic understanding, treatment evaluations, and individualized interventions. The aim of this review is to systematically summarize evidence from the past decade on the use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy under the aforementioned conditions, synthesize its value for revealing neural mechanisms and assessing therapeutic responses, and identify current technical bottlenecks and future directions for advancement. Collectively, the findings demonstrate that functional near-infrared spectroscopy possesses substantial and far-reaching potential for uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying disease and for evaluating treatment-induced changes in brain function. Equipped with wearable probes, functional near-infrared spectroscopy can continuously and noninvasively monitor brain activity in naturalistic environments for extended periods, thereby overcoming the limitations of conventional imaging modalities that can only acquire data under restricted settings. This capability can furnish unprecedented objective neuroimaging evidence for neuroregenerative therapy research. Moreover, the portability of functional near-infrared spectroscopy allows it to be integrated into neurofeedback training systems: hemoglobin signals can be fed back to participants within milliseconds, enabling targeted, individualized, closed-loop modulation of brain function and considerably expanding the scope of hemodynamics-based neurofeedback. When combined with other brain function assays (such as electroencephalography) and intervention techniques (such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation), functional near-infrared spectroscopy also supplies high-temporal-resolution hemodynamic information, laying a critical foundation for the construction of high-precision noninvasive brain–computer interfaces, real-time cognitive-state decoding, and adaptive neuromodulation. Admittedly, almost all existing functional near-infrared spectroscopy studies are still observational and have small sample sizes, short follow-ups, and insufficient controls–shortcomings that together produce low-grade evidence. Therefore, there is still a significant gap before clinical translation can be achieved. Technically, the limited penetration depth of functional near-infrared spectroscopy restricts sampling to the superficial cortex, leaving deep nuclei largely unreachable. In addition, no consensus exists across devices regarding optode layout, light-source choice, motion-artifact correction, or analytical pipelines, creating pronounced heterogeneity that undermines reproducibility. With artificial intelligence and big data analytics advancing rapidly, functional near-infrared spectroscopy embedded within multimodal fusion frameworks is now poised to systematically map aberrant brain function signatures of neurological disorders, identify pathological regions suitable for targeted intervention, and provide real-time assessments of functional changes produced by neuroregenerative therapies.