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Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device as an adjunct diagnostic tool in Vietnam to assess hemodynamics when people with schizophrenia and healthy controls performed cognitive tasks., Methods: One hundred fifty-seven participants were divided into schizophrenia ( n = 110) and healthy controls group ( n = 47), which were recruited by match of age, and gender. Hemodynamic responses in the frontal cortex were monitored with a 48-channel portable device during the Stroop Color-Word Test (SCWT) and Verbal Fluency Test (VFT). General linear model compared the differences in oxyhemoglobin (HbO 2 ) levels between the two groups. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) graph was generated for each neuroanatomical area., Results: People with schizophrenia did not show significant activation in the frontal lobe during the SCWT and VFT as compared to pre-task. During the VFT, the area under the ROC curve of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral orbitofrontal cortex, bilateral frontopolar prefrontal cortex, and bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex were greater than 0.7 (p < 0.001). The area under the ROC curve (AUC) for the right orbitofrontal cortex was maximal during the VFT (AUC = 0.802, 95%CI = 0.731-0.872). The Youden's index reached a peak (0.57) at the optimal cut-point value (HbO 2 cutoff <0.209 μmol/ml for schizophrenia) in which the sensitivity was 85%; specificity was 72%; positive predictive value (PPV) was 0.88; negative predictive value (NPV) was 0.68 and correct classification rate was 76%., Discussion: Assessing hemodynamics during VFT by portable fNIRS offers the potential as an adjunct diagnostic tool for schizophrenia in developing countries., Competing Interests: JC was employed by OBELAB, Inc. RM has received research grant support from CIHR/GACD/Chinese National Natural Research Foundation; speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, Bausch Health, Novo Nordisk, Kris, Sanofi, Eisai, Intra-Cellular, NewBridge Pharmaceuticals, Abbvie and also a CEO of Braxia Scientific Corp. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Tran, Nguyen, Boyer, Fond, Auquier, Nguyen, Tran, Nguyen, Choi, Le, Latkin, Nathan, Husain, McIntyre, Ho, Zhang and Ho.)