Patent Document ID: 20060006343
Application ID: 11044040
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An optical measurement method comprising the steps of: irradiating a plurality of regions on a surface of a subject's head with light; detecting an amount of transmitted light in a plurality of regions separated by a predetermined distance from the incident regions; applying a predefined stimulus/task instruction sequence to a subject; using the stimulus/task instruction sequence as a reference phase signal to calculate a synchronization index indicating the synchronousness of the phase of a signal, which represents a detected amount of transmitted light, with the reference phase signal; adopting as a second reference phase signal a signal which represents an amount of transmitted light and whose phase is found based on a synchronization index, which indicates the synchronousness of the phase of the signal, to be most highly synchronous with the reference phase signal; calculating a synchronization index indicating the synchronousness of the phase of a signal, which represents a detected amount of transmitted light, with the phase of the second reference phase signal; and adopting only a signal, which represents a detected amount of transmitted light and of which the synchronization index indicating the synchronousness of the phase thereof with the phase of the second reference phase signal is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold, as a measured value indicating a brain activity of the subject.