Non-invasive deep brain stimulation?

by Mohammad alKhawashki

16:00 (40 min) in STREAM

The brain's nerve cell bodies (grey matter) are connected to one another with fibre tract bundles (known as white matter). These tracts make up the neuronal superhighway that connects the brain's regions together. Most of the white matter is unreachable without surgery, and difficult to target with neuromodulation methods. However, recently popularized low-intensity focused ultrasounds could change it, and enable non-invasive deep brain stimulation of these structures. It could potentially improve therapeutic interventions for cognitive conditions (e.g., schizophrenia, treatment-resistant depression) as well as many neurological disorders (e.g., Parkinson's), but many questions need to be answered yet before this method is ready for the clinic.

In this talk, I'll highlight what research has been done already on ultrasound's effects on nerves, as well as how targeting white matter could be advantageous. I will also share my ongoing work and some early ideas on approaches to treatment design from a computational perspective.