Ultrasonic neuromodulation (UNM) is among the most significant new technologies being developed for human neuroscience because it can provide non-invasive control of neural activity in deep-brain regions with millimeter spatial precision and has elicited a surge of recent interest. UNM complements human imaging techniques for studying brain connectivity and function in basic and clinical applications. Thus, established non-invasive modulation techniques such as transcranial magnetic and electrical stimulation (TMS and TES) are limited by their physics to mostly cortical regions and centimeter-scale resolution, lacking access to subcortical areas underlying many neurological functions. In contrast, the physics of ultrasound enables this modality to target deep tissue structures with millimeter precision, including the human brain. A major goal of this project is to contribute to the development of technologies capable of precisely perturbing neural activity in humans that can work alongside imaging approaches such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG), and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Despite a surge of interest in UNM, the lack of knowledge about its underlying mechanisms and recent findings of off-target sensory effects accompanying direct neuromodulation pose significant challenges to the use of this technology in human neuro-science. To overcome these challenges, we will develop a mechanistic understanding of ultrasonic neuromodulation enabling the engineering of methods for direct, spatially selective control of human brain function. Methodologically, the overarching objective of the proposed work is to develop a multiscale hierarchy of electromechanical models that will provide a fundamental understanding, as well as a modeling and predictive capability, of how ultrasonic excitation results in brain activity and neuromodulation.
DFG - Project number 465186293