Abstract: Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a relatively new technique that can measure the hemoglobin changes in brain tissue. Depending on the absorption for different wavelength, relative changes in the concentration of hemoglobin in brain can be measured, obtaining the hemodynamic characteristics of brain to understand the brain functional state in real-time. Compared with other neuroimaging techniques, it has some advantages and has been used in psychiatry rapidly. Schizophrenia is one of the most common mental disorders, researches on its pathogenesis have focused on collection of structural and functional alteration in brain. Existing techniques can provide only indirect evidence, while fNIRS can perform brain function monitoring in real-time. A number of studies have suggested that fNIRS signal could be used as a biomarker for schizophrenia identification and adjuvant diagnosis. This paper reviewed the research progress in the application of fNIRS in schizophrenia.

Key words: functional near-infrared spectroscopy, oxygen-hemoglobin, deoxygen- hemoglobin, schizophrenia, biomarker