Simultaneous monitoring of hemodynamic changes from brain and spinal cord during visual sexual stimulation

Hemodynamic changes correspond to neuronal activity and they can be obtained by applying a non-invasive multichannel functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. Recently, many studies have been performed with fNIRS for the purpose of brain computer interface (BCI) implementation to monitor cognitive activity by measuring the brain hemodynamic and metabolic response. BCI is practically utilized to help disabled people use their remaining working functionalities as control possibilities. In this work, we propose a system that is able to monitor neuronal activity from the prefrontal cortex and spinal cord (S2-S4) simultaneously during visual sexual stimulation. The results show the ability of a system to track the signal from the brain to the genital organ through the spinal cord. The simultaneous measurement of signal from the spinal cord with the brain activity may play an important role in neuroscience research.