**5. Acknowledgment**

146 Infrared Spectroscopy – Life and Biomedical Sciences

can be observed from the experiment results that both in procedure 1 and procedure 2, oxy-Hb increased significantly no matter the subject really walked or just imagined walking in first-person perspective and third-person perspective. The experiment results suggest that the cortical areas related to walking was activated by both real walking and imaginary walking. The oxy-Hb in procedure 2 was generally lower that in procedure 1. The same video clips were used in procedures 1 and 2. The adaptation of the subject to the tasks might

The average oxy-Hb of the 4 subjects during the tasks in procedures 1 and 2 are listed in Table 2. In procedure 1, for all the subjects, oxy-Hb during VW and RW were higher that that during the RW before them. In procedure 2, although the oxy-Hb was generally lower than procedure 1, the same pattern (oxy-Hb were higher during VW and RW than the RW after them.) was observed except one subject QQ with oxy-Hb during WO of -0.054 and oxy-Hb during RW of -0.031. We can conclude from Table 2 that although individual difference was significant, on the average, the oxy-Hb levels during VW and WO were higher than the RW, regardless of the order of the tasks. There was no significant difference observed in the oxy-Hb during VW and WO. Whether the subjects imagined from first-person perspective or from third-person perspective did not lead to significant difference in cortical activation

Procedure 1 Procedure 2

RW VW RW WO VW RW WO RW

YJ -0.062 0.124 0.109 0.310 -0.050 -0.130 0.015 -0.038

RL 0.043 0.179 0.101 0.105 0.030 -0.092 -0.005 -0.090

QQ 0.182 0.286 0.387 0.443 -0.047 -0.090 -0.054 -0.031

LS -0.047 0.002 0.002 0.056 -0.180 -0.300 -0.284 -0.311

Avg 0.029 0.148 0.150 0.228 -0.062 -0.153 -0.082 -0.117

In our study, in order to verify the possibility of conducting neurological rehabilitation by mental imagery of walking and to find an effective way to activate the motor area in mental imagery, we compared the activation in motor areas during RW, VW, and WO, making use of the advantages of fNIRS. fNIRS measures cerebral hemodynamics noninvasively by monitoring the attenuation of near infrared light passing through tissue.

be the reason for the decrease in oxy-Hb.

of the brain regions we measured.

\*\*oxy-Hbs are given in mM·mm

**4. Conclusion** 

Table 2. Average oxy-Hb during RW, VW and WO tasks

This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research No. 20240058 and No. 21300212 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. It was also supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 23700316).
