Development of a Method for Quantitative Assessment of Brain Activity Using Infrared Images of the Head

The discovery of the phenomenon of the brain emitting electromagnetic waves, primarily infrared rays, opens up new prospects for easy, contactless, rapid, inexpensive research examination of the brain function.In some cases, the descriptive characteristics of brain infrared images become insufficient to capture the dynamics of structural and functional changes occurring in the brain.There is a need for a quantitative characteristic of the brain infrared dynamic image.The development of such a method was the goal of this study.A 60second non-contact infrared video recording of five sides of the head was made on 150 healthy people of different ages and both sexes.Five equally spaced static frames were cut from the video recording of the parietal surface of the head, in every 5 seconds.The total area of active ("hot") fields (A) in cm2 in each frame was measured, the average weighted temperature of active fields in each image (T) was determined, the speed of movement of active fields (v) and changes in the number of active fields (n) were measured.An integrated assessment of the specified parameters was carried out using the formula we derived: E(parietal) = A/T/v/n/, where E(parietal) is the energy that was produced in the brain for 30 seconds to complete a specific task, or for a person in relative rest.The parameters (v) and (n) were expressed through the dimensionless coefficients (Kv) and (Kn).Then the equation for determining brain energy took the form: E(parietal)=A*T*(Kv*Kn). Measurement of brain activity in six men aged 32-85 years, with different educational backgrounds, revealed wide individual variation in brain activity.In the older age group, consisting of three professors with an average age of 77 years, the E(parietal) index was 1.4 times higher than the average index for the relatively younger three men (average age 46 years) with a lower educational background.