title: Optical topography: practical problems and new applications.
abstract: We will briefly review the present status of optical topography and then discuss the method of improving practicality, i.e., the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and the spatial resolution in observations of higher-order brain functions. The optimum wavelength pair improved the S/N ratio sixfold for deoxyhemoglobin, and new configurations of light irradiation and detection positions doubled the spatial resolution. We also report on developing application fields of optical topography. This modality will bridge the gap between natural sciences, neuroscience, and pedagogy, and show actual real-time brain activity.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Limited, Hatoyama, Saitama 350-0395, Japan. hkoizumi@harl.hitachi.co.jp
authors.forename: Hideaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koizumi
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maki
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Hiroki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.forename: Noriyoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ichikawa
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D006801:Humans; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*