Editorial Special Section on Biomedical Diffuse Optics for the Brain

This special section collects four articles on the application of diffuse optics to measure cerebral hemodynamics and oxygenation. The possibility of using near-infrared light to collect cerebral hemodynamic and metabolic information through the intact scalp and skull was first proposed in the 1970s [1]. Commercial cerebral oximeters were developed in the 1990s, and functional measurements of brain activation, which signaled the birth of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), were first reported in 1993 [2], [3], [4], [5]. Oscillatory cerebral hemodynamics were also investigated in relation to functional and diagnostic applications [6], [7], [8], [9]. Journal special issues were published to celebrate the 20th [10] and 30th [11] anniversaries of fNIRS, and numerous review articles have provided overviews of the field of noninvasive optical measurements of the brain [12], [13], [14], [15].