Modulated-Laser Infrared Thermography of Heat Diffusion in Ex Vivo Biological Tissue: An Anomalous One-Dimensional Spatial Approach

Active Infrared Thermography is widely used to characterize laser–tissue interactions, yet quantitative extraction of non-Fourier transport parameters often relies on lock-in demodulation or computationally intensive inverse procedures. Here we propose Modulated-Laser Active Infrared Thermography (ML-AIT), a simplified protocol that exploits the central region of the laser spot, where lateral diffusion is minimized, enabling a one-dimensional (1D) spatial analysis of the temperature profile in ex vivo. porcine adipose tissue under periodic excitation (30–200 Hz). The measured spatial profiles are interpreted with generalized Cattaneo-type bioheat formulations, including fractional-order extensions that account for memory and subdiffusive heat spread in heterogeneous media. By fitting the frequency-dependent stationary spatial distributions, we compare classical Fourier, hyperbolic, and generalized Cattaneo descriptions within a unified analytical framework. The results show that, under the investigated conditions, the measured spatial decay is predominantly governed by optical attenuation, enabling the extraction of an effective optical attenuation coefficient from the thermographic profiles. ML-AIT thus provides a straightforward experimental and analytical approach for studying modulated laser-induced temperature profiles in ex vivoporcine adipose tissue.