Two gradient-basedoptimization schemes were investigated for continuous wave near infrared opticaltomography.The reason of slow convergence rate and low spatial resolution for conventionaloptimization schemes was analyzed. A spatial location weighted gradient-based optimizationscheme was adopted to reduce the computation burden and increase the reconstructionprecision. The reconstruction results confirm that the spatial location weightedoptimization method offers a more efficient approach to the continuous wave opticalimaging problem than conventional methods.