title: Test-retest reliability of the prefrontal response to affective pictures based on functional near-infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is being increasingly applied to affective and social neuroscience research; however, the reliability of this method is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the test–retest reliability of the fNIRS-based prefrontal response to emotional stimuli. Twenty-six participants viewed unpleasant and neutral pictures, and were simultaneously scanned by fNIRS in two sessions three weeks apart. The reproducibility of the prefrontal activation map was evaluated at three spatial scales (mapwise, clusterwise, and channelwise) at both the group and individual levels. The influence of the time interval was also explored and comparisons were made between longer (intersession) and shorter (intrasession) time intervals. The reliabilities of the activation map at the group level for the mapwise (up to 0.88, the highest value appeared in the intersession assessment) and clusterwise scales (up to 0.91, the highest appeared in the intrasession assessment) were acceptable, indicating that fNIRS may be a reliable tool for emotion studies, especially for a group analysis and under larger spatial scales. However, it should be noted that the individual-level and the channelwise fNIRS prefrontal responses were not sufficiently stable. Future studies should investigate which factors influence reliability, as well as the validity of fNIRS used in emotion studies.
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yuxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Mengchai
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Zong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.affiliation: Massey University, School of Psychology, 3.26 Psychology Building, Tennent Drive, Palmerston North 4474, Manawalu, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Ute
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kreplin
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Beijing Normal University, State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, 19 Xin Jie Kou Wai Da Jie, Hai Dian District, Beijing 100875, China.
authors.forename: Chaozhe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D010781:Photography; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared