Ultrasound Neuromodulation

Background

Ultrasound stimulation (US) has recently emerged as a promising technology to achieve reliable, selective and noninvasive neuromodulation of various targets of the central nervous system of rodents, non-human primates and humans. A myriad of applications can therefore be envisaged in which US would replace the standard and invasive electrical stimulation.

However, despite the growing emergence of this scientific field, to date, the fundamental mechanism(s) by which ultrasonic waves can modulate neural activity are still unknown. This is a limiting factor hindering the maturation of US as a reliable neuromodulation technology.

We are currently developing computational modeling framework to decipher the mechanisms of US-neuron interactions and formulate predictions of US neuromodulatory effects for different targets in the central and peripheral nervous systems. The projects presented below include the development of various branches of this computational framework, as well as its validation against experimental data.