Is Wireless Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) 3D Neuroimaging Feasible to Map Human Navigation in the Real-World? Stefania Lancia, Silvia Mammarella, Denise Bianco and Valentina Quaresima Abstract Real-time maps (with temporal and spatial resolution: 1–10 Hz and ∼1 cm, respectively) of cortical activation can be obtained by functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which noninvasively measures cortical hemodynamic changes (as oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin changes). The very recent launch in the market of commercial wireless/wearable fNIRS systems encourages their application in the field of human navigational studies to be carried out in the real-life situations. Keywords fNIRS ⋅ Spatial navigation ⋅ Human behavior ⋅ Real-life monitoring ⋅ Cerebral cortex 1 Introduction Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a non-invasive vascular-based functional neuroimaging technology which measures, simultaneously from multiple measurement sites, concentration changes of oxygenated-hemoglobin (O 2 Hb) and deoxygenated-hemoglobin (HHb) at the level of the cortical microcirculation blood vessels. fNIRS uses near-infrared light (700–1000 nm) which passes easily through the scalp/skull/brain surface (Quaresima and Ferrari 2017). Real-time maps of cortical O 2 Hb/HHb changes (hemodynamic response to a given stimulus) can be obtained applying an array of sources/detectors over the scalp (temporal resolution: 1–10 Hz; spatial resolution about 1 cm). The increase of cerebral oxygenation, observable by fNIRS, is secondary to the cortical neuronal activation (neurovas- cular coupling) in response to specific stimuli (cognitive, motor, etc.). Unlike the well-known neuroimaging technique functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), fNIRS (thanks to its intrinsic advantageous features) represents an optimal S. Lancia ( ✉ ) ⋅ S. Mammarella ⋅ D. Bianco ⋅ V. Quaresima Department of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, L’Aquila, Italy e-mail: stefania.lancia@graduate.univaq.it © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 P. Fogliaroni et al. (eds.), Proceedings of Workshops and Posters at the 13th International Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT 2017), Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63946-8_16 73