To conclude, we consider that the presented toolbox is a first-order approach to bring the achieved advancements within fMRI concerning parcellation methods (Methods section) and meta-analyses50–52 to the fNIRS optode positions selection. While it is known that the fNIRS spatial resolution is lower than fMRI, it is possible to increase the precision of hypothesis-driven experimental design by finding the overlapping regions of interest with the simulated fNIRS sensitivity profiles, as illustrated in Fig. 9 based on the meta-analysis of posterior temporal parietal junction53. We envision that the toolbox shall not only benefit the design of fNIRS experiments and optode positions but also improve the discussion of fNIRS results in face of a priori expectation of channels to present a greater anatomical specificity to a region of interest. Finally, the proposed MNI coordinates (Equation 3) calculated from the weighted mean, based on a given channel’s normalized sensitivity, may also further improve results comparison with fMRI and enable fNIRS meta-analyses.