Abstract

Cerebral vascular autoregulation is the process by which the balance between oxygen demand and supply is maintained in brain tissue. We have developed a method for dividing the hemoglobin signal into six discrete categories that correspond to different states of vascular autoregulation. All six states occur continuously throughout the brain, however little is known about their interplay within specified regions of the cortex that subserve specific cognitive tasks. Here we report on a study that investigated cerebral vascular autoregulation (CVA) in three groups of adult subjects during a verbal working memory task: healthy controls, subjects with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injuries, and multiple sclerosis patients. The CVA state analysis performed reveals statistically significant differences between all pairs of subject groups.

© 2008 Optical Society of America