OSCR

Disrupted functional connectivity during stroke recovery revealed via bedside optical neuroimaging.

Overview

Authors: Karla M. Bergonzi1, Broc A. Burke2, Morgan Fogarty3, Arefeh Sherafati4, Tracy M. Burns-Yocum5, Silvina L. Ferradal6, Ben Julian A. Palanca7, Rajat Dhar8, Gyanendra Kumar9, Jin-Moo Lee3,8, Joseph P. Culver3, Adam T. Eggebrecht3
ORCID iDs: Karla M. Bergonzi, Morgan Fogarty, Arefeh Sherafati, Jin-Moo Lee, Adam T. Eggebrecht
  1. L3Harris, Rochester, New York, United States
  2. University of Colorado Anschutz, Department of Anesthesiology, Aurora, Colorado, United States
  3. Washington University School of Medicine, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
  4. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Department of Psychology and Biobehavioral Sciences, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
  5. Evolytics | A Concord Company, Parkville, Missouri, United States
  6. Indiana University, Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Bloomington, Indiana, United States
  7. Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
  8. Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
  9. Mayo Clinic, Department of Neurology, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States
Institutions: L3Harris (United States) (United States); University of Colorado Anschutz (United States); Washington University in St. Louis (United States); St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (United States); Indiana University (United States); Mayo Clinic (United States)
Journal: Neurophotonics, volume 13, issue 3, article 035002
Dates: received 21 January 2026; accepted 8 June 2026; published online 8 July 2026; in print July 2026
Type: Research article · Language: English
License: CC BY
Identifiers: DOI 10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002 · PMID 42422725 · PMCID PMC13341923 · OpenAlex W7167732894
Open access: gold, a free copy (OpenAlex)
Status: code on request
Categories: fNIRS (modality), human (organism), stroke (population)
Methods: Spectral & time-frequency, Connectivity, Statistics, fMRI & imaging, Physiology & signal measures
Keywords: functional imaging, neuroimaging, stroke recovery, diffuse optical tomography
Topic: Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy Techniques (Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging, Medicine), according to OpenAlex
Funding: NIH (R01EB03491902, R01NS090874, U01EB027005, U24NS136402, R01MH122751, K01MH103594, KL2 TR000450); International Anesthesiology Research Society; SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship; American Heart Association (26POST1562738)
Citations: not cited yet (Europe PMC); 59 references in the paper

Abstract

Significance: Current clinical care following ischemic stroke provides intermittent assessments, potentially missing early detection of neurological deterioration. Optical imaging offers the potential for a continuous, portable alternative to the current combination of physical exams and radiological imaging. However, optical imaging technology has lacked the crucial combination of portability, resolution, and coverage required to assess spatially distributed brain function.

Aim: Here, we present a proof-of-principle study that applies recent advancements in portable high-density diffuse optical tomography (HD-DOT) instrumentation and a functional connectivity analysis strategy to assess spatially distributed brain connectivity. Point-of-care brain health assessments with these tools may inform clinical care and our understanding of brain injury throughout acute stages of stroke recovery.

Approach: We measured spatially distributed cortical oxygenation with HD-DOT within the intensive care unit in N=13 patients with ischemic stroke within the first 72-h since last known normal. To assess brain function integrity, we developed a Similarity metric of functional connectivity (FC) through comparisons to FC in a healthy young adult population. To assess the sensitivity of this FC Similarity metric to disruptions caused by stroke, we compared these data with FC Similarity assessed in an older healthy cohort. We administered the NIH Stroke Scale to stroke patients to evaluate the potential of the FC Similarity metric to inform the severity of functional disruptions.

Results: The FC Similarity metric applied to HD-DOT data in both acute stroke patients and healthy older controls exhibited a significant sensitivity to the presence of a stroke (Cohen’s d=1.5, p=1.2×10−3) and a significant relationship with the degree of neurological disruption as measured by the NIH Stroke Scale (R2=0.69, p=4.7×10−4).

Conclusions: We present a proof-of-principle for HD-DOT and the FC Similarity metric for assessing brain function during the acute stage of ischemic stroke recovery at the point-of-care.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Code and Data Availability

The data presented in this article will be made publicly available on OpenNeuro following publication. Code for this article used NeuroDOT and can be made available upon request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 2, 28 September 2026

  • Authors: added Arefeh Sherafati (0000-0003-2543-0851); removed Arefeh Sherafati

Version 1, 27 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 12 authors, 4 keywords, 4 funders, 58 references.

Cite

This paper

Bergonzi, K. M., Burke, B. A., Fogarty, M., Sherafati, A., Burns-Yocum, T. M., Ferradal, S. L., Palanca, B. J. A., Dhar, R., Kumar, G., Lee, J.-M., Culver, J. P., & Eggebrecht, A. T. (2026). Disrupted functional connectivity during stroke recovery revealed via bedside optical neuroimaging. Neurophotonics, 13(3), 035002. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002

BibTeX

@article{bergonzi2026disrupted,
author = {Bergonzi, Karla M. and Burke, Broc A. and Fogarty, Morgan and Sherafati, Arefeh and Burns-Yocum, Tracy M. and Ferradal, Silvina L. and Palanca, Ben Julian A. and Dhar, Rajat and Kumar, Gyanendra and Lee, Jin-Moo and Culver, Joseph P. and Eggebrecht, Adam T.},
title = {{Disrupted functional connectivity during stroke recovery revealed via bedside optical neuroimaging}},
journal = {Neurophotonics},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
volume = {13},
number = {3},
pages = {035002},
publisher = {Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers},
issn = {2329-423X},
doi = {10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002},
pmid = {42422725},
pmcid = {PMC13341923}
}

RIS

TY - JOUR
AU - Bergonzi, Karla M.
AU - Burke, Broc A.
AU - Fogarty, Morgan
AU - Sherafati, Arefeh
AU - Burns-Yocum, Tracy M.
AU - Ferradal, Silvina L.
AU - Palanca, Ben Julian A.
AU - Dhar, Rajat
AU - Kumar, Gyanendra
AU - Lee, Jin-Moo
AU - Culver, Joseph P.
AU - Eggebrecht, Adam T.
TI - Disrupted functional connectivity during stroke recovery revealed via bedside optical neuroimaging
T2 - Neurophotonics
J2 - Neurophotonics
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/08
VL - 13
IS - 3
SP - 035002
SN - 2329-423X
PB - Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
DO - 10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002
UR - https://doi.org/10.1117/1.nph.13.3.035002
LA - en
ER -

CSL-JSON

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