Near-Infrared Light Increases Functional Connectivity with a Non-thermal Mechanism

Although techniques for noninvasive brain stimulation are under intense investigation, an approach that has received limited attention is transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM), the delivery of near-infrared light to the brain with a laser or light-emitting diode directed at the scalp. Here we employed functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent signal in n = 20 healthy human participants while concurrently stimulating their right frontal pole with a near-infrared laser. Functional connectivity with the illuminated region increased by up to 15% during stimulation, with a quarter of all connections experiencing a significant increase. The time course of connectivity exhibited a sharp rise approximately 1 min after illumination onset. Brain-wide connectivity increases were also observed, with connections involving the stimulated hemisphere showing a significantly larger increase than those in the contralateral hemisphere. We subsequently employed magnetic resonance thermometry to measure brain temperature during tPBM (separate cohort, n = 20) and found no significant temperature differences between active and sham stimulation. Our findings suggest that near-infrared light synchronizes brain activity with a nonthermal mechanism, underscoring the promise of tPBM as a new technique for stimulating brain function.