Photon transport through the entire adult human head
Abstract
Optical brain imaging technologies are promising due to their relatively high temporal resolution, portability and cost-effectiveness. However, the highly scattering nature of near-infrared light in human tissue makes it challenging to collect photons emerging from more than 4 cm below the scalp, or with source-detector separation larger than several centimeters. We explore the physical limits of photon transport in the head and show that despite an extreme attenuation of ~10^(18), we can experimentally detect light that is transmitted diametrically through the entire adult human head. Analysis of various photon migration pathways through the head also indicates how the source-detector configuration can be used to isolate photons interacting with deep regions of the brain that are inaccessible with current optical techniques.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2412.01360,
title = {Photon transport through the entire adult human head},
author = {Jack Radford and Vytautas Gradauskas and Kevin J. Mitchell and Samuel Nerenberg and Ilya Starshynov and Daniele Faccio},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.01360},
year = {2024}
}