Anaïs Bouchet1,2, Abigail A. Kressner1,2, Erik F. Kjærbøl2, Maaike Van Eeckhoutte1,2
1Hearing Systems Section, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
2Copenhagen Hearing and Balance Center, Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) & Audiology Clinic, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a relatively recent imaging technique and presents many advantages for clinical use in audiology: it is silent, compatible with cochlear implants, and child-friendly, and can measure cortical activation in response to acoustic stimuli. Most studies report results at the group level, with the responses averaged across participants. However, for clinical applications, a good test-retest reliability at the individual level is required. Furthermore, a challenge when using fNIRS is to remove physiological confounds from the data, such as the heartbeat and motion artefacts. While various processing methods have been developed, the procedure to follow is not yet standardized. One promising new approach for improving the test-retest reliability is to use short-channel separations. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate individual level test-retest reliability of the fNIRS responses evoked by auditory stimulation for normal-hearing participants. The fNIRS responses of fourteen participants were recorded to silence, a speech-shaped modulated noise, a speech passage, and a music sample. In addition, the speech-shaped noise was presented at two different intensities. The stimuli were presented in a block paradigm. The same testing procedure was repeated with an interval between sessions of one week. Preliminary results show a high variability of test-retest reliability of the fNIRS response across individuals. The results will be further discussed at the conference.