Um Workshop de fNIRS na America latina / fNIRS Workshop in Latin America!
Written by: Cesar Noronha, M
Pictures: Mariana Ceci/Ascom ISD
(Português abaixo)
fNIRS Workshop in Latin America!
2022 started off on the right foot in Latin America with workshops for participants from all regions of Brazil!
In February, NIRx, together with Brain Support, and Instituto Santos Dumont, hosted a two-day workshop with presentations and hands-on sessions. This event featured morning lectures and practical sessions in the afternoons.
Maria Adelia presenting the hands-on session.
In the mornings, international speakers were invited to talk about their fNIRS research. They introduced advantages of fNIRS, challenges, experimental design, special considerations and analyses. On the last day, NIRx held a closing talk discussing the fundamentals of fNIRS.
Cesar Noronha setting up the NIRS cap.
In the afternoons, there were practical sessions demonstrating NIRSport2 data acquisition on the first day, and NIRSport1 on the second day. This was all streamed online.
After the sessions, we worked with each research group on their specific questions and challenges. The focus of the first day was the assembly design and data acquisition and the second day was the analysis and interpretation.
Representatives of at least 4 different research groups that use or want to use fNIRS in their research were present. We love to share fNIRS technology. Check out our webinars or events pages for more upcoming workshops.
The lectures are in Instituto Santos Dumont open YouTube channel for sharing:
NIRx Staff - Maria Adelia de Aratanha, Cesar Noronha
Brain Support Staff - Daniel Machado
Um Webinar de fNIRS na America latina!
Iniciamos 2022 com o pé direito na américa latina! Realizamos seminários com convidados de varias regiões do Brasil!
Em Fevereiro os pesquisadores e entusiastas de fNIRS da America Latina tiveram um evento para chamar de seu. A NIRx junto da Brain Suport e o Instuto Santos Dumont realizaram um webinar de dois dias com apresentações e sessões de hands-on!
Maria Adelia explains the multiplicity of fNIRS systems
Este foi um workshop de dois dias muito interessante. Tivemos palestras inteiras de manhã e NIRx e sessões práticas durante as tardes. Pela manhã tivemos palestrantes internacionais falando sobre suas pesquisas com fNIRS, desafios, vantagens, desenho experimental, considerações especiais e análises. No último dia, o NIRx realizou uma palestra de encerramento falando sobre os fundamentos do fNIRS.
Na parte da tarde, tivemos uma sessão prática gravada onde mostramos a aquisição de dados NIRSport2 no primeiro dia e NIRSport1 no segundo dia. Após a sessão gravada, trabalhávamos com cada grupo de pesquisa em suas questões e desafios específicos. O foco do primeiro dia foi o desenho da montagem e aquisição de dados e no segundo dia foi a análise e interpretação.
Researchers from different laboratories discuss an experimental design proposed during the seminar
Tivemos a presença de representantes de pelo menos 4 diferentes grupos de pesquisa que utilizam ou utilização fNIRS em suas pesquisas. Os pesquisadores presentes além de elogiarem bastante o webinar já perguntaram quando será o próximo!
As palestras estão no canal do YouTube do Instituto Santos Dumont aberto para compartilhamento:
The Latin America fNIRS community in attendance
Thank you to all who attended! See you next time!
LatAmNIRS Virtual Meeting 2021
Um encontro virtual de sucesso para a comunidade de NIRS da América Latina / A successful virtual event for the Latin American NIRS community!
A LatAmNIRS foi muito boa! A reunião aconteceu durante um único dia recheado de apresentações de pesquisadores do mundo todo em português e espanhol.
O dia foi dividido em quatro seções, cobrindo Instrumentação, Aplicações em neurociência, Análise de dados e aplicações clinicas. A palestra de abertura, ministrada pela Prof. Debora Marques de Miranda (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil), abordou insights a respeito de bebes em desenvolvimento. Já a palestra de encerramento, ministrada pelo Prof. Luca Pollonini (University of Houston, USA/EE.UU), abordou sobre orientações para que uma pesquisa em fNIRS seja bem sucedida.
Além disso, a reunião contou com um workshop oferecido pela BrainSupport, que trouxe palestras sobre desenhos experimentais, sobre as mais atuais toolboxes para análise de dados de fNIRS, e com uma demonstração ao vivo de uma medida de NIRS com o sistema NIRSport2 da NIRx em conjunto a medidas de fisiologia extracerebral usando o mais novo produto da empresa, o NIRxWINGS.
The LatAmNIRS 2021 virtual meeting was a blast! It featured a single day packed with talks in Spanish and Portuguese from speakers from all over the globe.
The day was split into four main sessions covering Instrumentation, Neuroscience Applications, Data analysis, and Clinical Applications. The opening talk was given by Prof. Debora Marques de Miranda (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil), who shared her research insights on developing babies using NIRS, while the closing talk was conducted by Prof. Luca Pollonini (University of Houston, USA/EE.UU), who presented guidelines for successful fNIRS investigations.
In addition to that, the meeting also held a workshop offered by BrainSupport. This featured lectures on experimental design, the latest fNIRS analysis toolboxes, and a hands-on live demonstration of a NIRS measurement using a NIRx NIRSport2 system. We also demonstrated how physiological measurements can be concurrently measured with our, the NIRxWINGS.
See you next year!
Music, education and the brain
A report from UFABC, Brazil
Brains in Concert!
Below a small report from a unique event that took place earlier this year in São Paulo!
At the start of 2019, a very special event took place in the auditorium of the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, in São Paulo Brazil. The lucky 500 researchers and students that managed to secure a ticket, were able to experience a musical performance quite different from traditional concerts. While doctor Alicia Kowaltowski (Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo (IQ-USP)) and neuroscientist Patrícia de Carvalho Aguiar (Einstein Brain Institute) played violin and cello, real-time oxygenation changes in their brain were projected above their heads!
This spectacular show was produced by Professor João Ricardo Sato, neuroscientist and statistician at the Center for Mathematics, Computing and Cognition at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC). Professor Sato is an expert fNIRS researcher, with a particular interest in applying hyper-scanning to study teaching and learning processes, as well as music cognition. During the event in January, the brain, music and education converged into a great spectacle. A full report of this event can be read in the online version of the Pesquisa FAPESP magazine (in Portuguese).
It’s not the first time this group is finding new and innovative ways to showcase fNIRS. Below is a video produced by the Neuroscience and Music group of UFABC during the presentation of the Orquestra Sinfônica de Santo André.
And, who has not seen the famous violin hyper-scanning video?
In February, Professor Sato and his colleagues published their work on studying brain activity in professional violinists in Frontiers in Psychology. Specifically, the group used fNIRS hyper-scanning to identify distinct patterns of brain activity for when the violinists were playing either as leader or as follower in musical duets. A great example of multi-subject studies in naturalistic environments!
Interested to read more about the work of Professor Sato? Below you will find A selection of recent publication:
VANZELLA, P. et al . fNIRS responses in professional violinists while playing duets: Evidence for distinct leader and follower roles at the brain level . Frontiers in Psychology . Feb. 2019.
BROCKINGTON, G. et al . From the laboratory to the classroom: The potential of functional near-infrared spectroscopy in educational neuroscience . Frontiers in Psychology . Oct. 2018 .
BALARDIN, Joana B. et al . Imaging brain function with functional near-infrared spectroscopy in unconstrained environments . Frontiers in Human Neuroscience . May. 2017.
New to fNIRS and interested to see if our hyper-scanning solutions can enhance your research? Or looking to advance your ongoing fNIRS work and take it to natural environments? Please do not hesitate to Contact us!
Event Recap: NIRx Workshop Fudan University
A big thank you to everyone making this workshop a success!
The 2019 NIRx & Hanix Workshop at Fudan University in Shanghai was a great success!
We would like to thank all organizing parties, guest speakers, attending researchers and students, supporting staff and everyone else involved with the NIRx Workshop at Fudan University Shanghai last week. During the two-day workshop a strong selection of researchers presented their ongoing work, while NIRx Scientific and Technical experts provided lectures and hands-on training sessions. Please find below a brief report!
The first day started with guest lectures, and Professor Li Xianchun from East China Normal University had the honor to deliver the first, which focused on brain synchronization during social interaction.
Next, Professor Zhang Dandan of Shenzhen University shared her research on the processing of emotional speech in newborn brains, also explaining some principals of fNIRS data collection and analysis. Recently, a study from Prof. Zhang got published in the Human Brain Mapping journal. Read more about it here!
In the afternoon, Professor Niu Haijing from Bejing Normal University presented her work on how to use resting state fNIRS analysis to study brain development in children.
If resting state fNIRS analysis interests you, check out our upcoming Functional Connectivity Webinar!
The second afternoon talk was held by Professor Benjamin Becker from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in Chengdu. Prof. Becker showed how his lab investigates new treatments for mental disorders using real-time fNIRS neurofeedback.
UESTC Chengdu (China) - Third Prize Winner in the NIRx 2018 Student Video Contest
The first day of the workshop was concluded by a wonderful talk from Professor Liu Tao of Zheijang University. Prof. Tao showed how VR and fNIRS can be combined to study inter-brain coupling in an interactive environment.
Thank you to all guest speakers for their interesting contributions!
On the second day, we continued with practical lectures on fNIRS experimental set-up, study design, data acquisition and data analysis. We also demonstrated concurrent fNIRS-TMS. Below you may find more pictures of the workshop!
Interested to see if there is an upcoming NIRx fNIRS event in your region? On our Events Page you will find all upcoming workshops, conferences and other events we are organizing or attending.
We look forward to meet you there!
Upcoming event – Hands on next generation fNIRS. 8th of June, Rome
Reserve your spot now - limited availability
We would hereby like to warmly invite you to the Rethink Functional Imaging – Hands on next generation fNIRS event, organized by NIRx Medical Technologies and Brain Innovation. This one-day workshop introduces a new platform for wearable, whole-head functional near-infrared spectroscopy, from signal acquisition to data analysis. The event takes place on June 8; just before the official OHBM annual meeting starts. Claim your spot for this event on http://rethinkfnirs.eventbrite.com, or read more information below!
A little over 30 years ago, NIRx introduced the concept of multi-distance spectroscopy measurements – tomographic brain imaging using near-infrared light. Together with Brain Innovation, pioneer of advanced analysis and mapping of structural and functional brain data. Now, we are presenting an all-new way of studying brain activity, integrating the entire research workflow.
Join us for an interactive demonstration of the NIRSport 2, the wearable whole-head imaging platform. Try its powerful multi-device mode, and run whole-head measurements in almost any environment imaginable. Visualize hemodynamic changes with Aurora, the latest fNIRS acquisition software, and experience its potential for multi-modal research.
This event marks the premiere of our latest collaborative effort: an all-new analysis software. Get inspired, and be part of the newest developments in mobile neuroimaging. Meet the community and learn about ongoing efforts. Rethink your study, and rethink fNIRS.
The event is scheduled from 10am to 3pm, June 8, with admission free of charge. Final schedule, program and venue to be announced. Places are limited, so register now!
We very much look forward to welcoming you in Rome.