Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a safe, low-cost, non-invasive opti-cal technique to monitor focal changes in brain activity using neurovascular coupling and measurements of local tissue oxygenation, i.e., changes in concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR)[42]. This thesis utilizes two fNIRS approaches to measure hemodynamic changes associated with functional stimulation of the human auditory cortex. The first approach, single-distance continuous wave NIRS (CW-NIRS) utilizes relatively simple instrumentation and the Modified-Beer Lambert (MBL) law to estimate activation induced changes in tissue oxygenation (∆CHbO and ∆CHbR)[17]. The second more complex approach, frequency domain NIRS (FD-NIRS), employs a photon diffusion model of light propagation through tissue to measure both baseline (CHbO and CHbR), and stimulus induced changes in oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin[10]. FD-NIRS is more quantitative, but requires measurements at multiple light source-detector separations and thus its use in measuring focal changes in cerebral hemodynamics have been limited. A commercial FD-NIRS instrument was used to measure the cerebral hemodynamics from the right auditory cortex of 9 adults (21 ± 35 years) with normal hearing, while presented with two types of auditory stimuli: a 1000 Hz Pure tone, and Broad band noise. Measured optical intensities were analyzed using both MBL and photon diffusion approaches. Oxygenated hemoglobin was found to increase by 0.351 ± 0.116 µM and 0.060 ± 0.084 µM for Pure tone and Broad band noise stimuli, when analyzed by the MBL method at the ‘best’ source-detector separation. On average (across all sources), MBL analysis estimated an increase in CHbO of 0.100±0.075 µM and 0.099±0.084 µM respectively for Pure tone and Broad band noise stimulation. In contrast, the frequency domain analysis method estimated CHbO to increase by −0.401 ± 0.384 µM and −0.031 ± 0.358 µM for Pure tone and Broad band noise stimulation respectively. These results suggest that although more quantitative, multi-distance FD-NIRS may underestimate focal changes in cerebral hemodynamics that occur due to functional activation. Potential reasons for this discrepancy, including the partial volume effect, are discussed.