devfOLD

devfOLD optimizes fNIRS channel placement across age-specific head models to maximize sensitivity to user-defined brain regions of interest.

Key Features:

• Age-Specific Optimization: Incorporates realistic head models for infants, children, and adults to generate age-appropriate source–detector configurations.
• ROI-Based Design: Allows specification of stereotaxic anatomical regions of interest to optimize source–detector arrangements for maximal sensitivity to target cortical areas.
• Photon Propagation Simulation: Uses photon propagation simulations to compute channel-to-ROI specificity and channel sensitivity profiles.
• Cross-Age Consistency Analysis: Evaluates between-age consistency and differences in ROI-to-channel correspondence, including effects of cortical location and user-defined specificity thresholds.

Scientific Applications:

• Developmental neuroscience: Design and interpretation of age-appropriate fNIRS studies investigating cognitive development, age-related changes in brain activity, and neurological disorders in children.

Methodology:

Extends the fOLD toolbox by integrating stereotaxic atlases with photon propagation simulations and realistic infant, child, and adult head models to compute channel-to-ROI specificity and assess between-age correspondence.