fNIRS reproducibility: data quality, pipelines, and researcher experience

• fNIRS reproducibility varies with data quality, analysis pipelines, and researcher experience (Communications Biology).¹
• This directly informs fNIRS-based BCI and study design.^{1 1}

Gardner updates

• fNIRS reproducibility varies with data quality, analysis pipelines, and researcher experience (Communications Biology), informing fNIRS-based BCI and study design. ¹

Weekly enrichment (2026-07-20)

• The study was published in Communications Biology (2025, article s42003-025-08412-1) under the fNIRS Reproducibility Study Hub (FRESH) initiative, a coordinated multi-team reproducibility effort.^{2 3}
• FRESH asked 38 research teams worldwide to independently analyze the same two fNIRS datasets using their own preferred pipelines, deliberately capturing real-world analytical variability.^{2 3}
• Despite the absence of any shared pipeline, nearly 80% of teams agreed on the group-level results, with agreement strongest for hypotheses that are well supported by prior literature.²
• Agreement was substantially lower at the individual-participant level but improved as data quality increased, pointing to signal quality as a key moderator of reproducibility.²
• Teams reporting higher confidence in their analysis skills reached more consistent group-level conclusions, and confidence correlated with years of fNIRS experience (r = 0.36, p < 0.002, 95% CI [0.14, 0.55], n = 69).³
• The largest sources of cross-team variability were how poor-quality data were pruned, how the hemodynamic response function was modeled, and the analysis space/statistical methods used (e.g., GLM choices, signal-space regression).^{2 3}
• The authors conclude that flexible analytical tools are valuable but that clearer, standardized methodological and reporting standards would meaningfully improve reproducibility and transparency in fNIRS-based neuroscience and BCI work.²

Footnotes

1. https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiX0FVX3lxTE1wSjhkRUdmNVFlc20tQnBSRllmRzNwUEtZTjdpck1EWk8xNTRhRTY1Mld1aHZkVEVoWGZob2lqOVhEZktvM1pvSDF0QmEzZlpTSV9vdVd2bkFUOExCYUxR?oc=5 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08412-1 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. https://lilloa.hal.science/hal-05441750v1/file/Yucel2025_CommBiology.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴