Frontal cerebral oxygenation asymmetry: intersubject variability and dependence on systemic physiology, season, and time of day

Significance: Our study reveals that frontal cerebral oxygenation asymmetry (FCOA), i.e. a difference in the oxygenation between the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC), is a real phenomenon in healthy human subjects at rest. Aim: To investigate FCOA, we performed a study with 134 healthy right-handed subjects with the systemic physiology augmented functional near infrared spectroscopy (SPA-fNIRS) approach. Approach: Subjects were measured 2 to 4 times on different days resulting in an unprecedented number of 518 single measurements of the absolute values of tissue oxygen saturation ([Formula: see text]) and total hemoglobin concentration ([tHb]) of the right and left PFC. Measurements were performed with frequency-domain functional near-infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the cardiorespiratory parameters were measured simultaneously. Results: We found that (i) subjects showed an FCOA (higher [Formula: see text] on the right PFC), but not for tHb; (ii) intrasubject variability was excellent for both [Formula: see text] and tHb, and fair for FCOA; (iii) [Formula: see text] correlated significantly with blood [Formula: see text] concentration, [tHb] with heart rate, respiration rate (RR), and the pulse–respiration quotient (PRQ), and FCOA with RR and PRQ; (iv) FCOA and [Formula: see text] were dependent on season and time of day, respectively; (v) FCOA was negatively correlated with the room temperature; and (vi) [Formula: see text] and tHb were not correlated with the subjects mood but with their chronotype, whereas FCOA was not dependent on the chronotype. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that FCOA is real, and it provides unique insights into this remarkable phenomenon.