The use of fNIRS has seen a nearly exponential growth in publications across different neuroscience fields in the last decades. However, there are almost no guidelines for beginners for fNIRS data analysis. This is particularly challenging for researchers new to the field. Therefore, the hitchhiker’s guide to functional near-infrared spectroscopy is intended to provide a practical step-by-step guide for fNIRS data standardisation, preprocessing and analysis for block-design paradigms using both block average and the general linear model (GLM). The guide offers researchers new to the field a simple introduction to fNIRS data analysis by use of the NIRS BrainAnalyzIR Toolbox and thus, might be helpful to adapt and further develop standardized fNIRS data analysis.
The corresponding article “Don’t panic! A hitchhiker’s guide to functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) data analysis for block-design paradigms” and the corresponding project page on the OSF including open materials, data, and code can be assessed here.
Project team: Katharina Stute, Mojtaba Soltanlou, Christina Artemenko, Beatrix Barth, David Mehler, Theodore Huppert, Hendrik Santosa, Franziska Klein
Project status: Ongoing