![]() ![]() Neuron stimulation, which has been successfully applied for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders, including epilepsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and treatment-resistant depression, may find a new method in optoacoustics. Optoacoustic neuromodulation can be achieved through a variety of techniques. They also offer their perspective on future directions in fundamental and translational research for the field. In a primer published in Neurophotonics, they discuss device design considerations, potential mechanisms, and barriers to the uptake of optoacoustics as a viable neuromodulation tool. More recently, they created a new type of optoacoustic emitter that extends precision to the single neuron and subcellular level. By repurposing an optoacoustic emitter originally developed for surgical guidance, they developed the first example of optoacoustic neurostimulation. The life sciences have witnessed rapid development of optoacoustic technologies, for imaging of living biological structures - ranging from subcellular structures to organs, and even whole animals.Ī team at Boston University recently started to make use of optoacoustics for high-precision neuromodulation. The optoacoustic process involves pulses of light that are converted into acoustic waves at ultrasonic frequencies. #Neuro soundwaves plus#Optoacoustic neuromodulation is a new and versatile modality that offers the high penetration depth of ultrasound, plus the high spatial precision of photons. Listeners will hear, feel and see the brain activity either in the normal state or a seizure state, and all in its natural time course and with its awesome rhythms and severity.Neuromodulation plays an important role in deciphering neural circuits and exploring clinical treatment of neurological diseases. The final product of this unique collaboration will be a device that creates audio and 3D visualizations directly from arrays of intracranial brain signals in patients with epilepsy. While the PI will contribute with his unique expertise in intracranial electrophysiological recordings and signal processing, the co-PI will contribute with his internationally known and ground-breaking method of “musification” of biological, medical, and environmental sources. In this collaborative project, the PI is the Director of Medication-Resistant Epilepsy Program at Stanford and the Co-PI is the Director of Center of Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. #Neuro soundwaves software#At a higher level of abstraction, advanced sonification and visualization software can track patterns over time in the data, uncovering the individual regularities, which may then lead to larger patterns to be found in common among many patients with epilepsy. You can move through the 3D visual and auditory space to pinpoint the origin of specific patterns, the entrainment of neighboring areas and so on. Couple this with visualizations of the same flowing data in 3D projections, and the workings of the brain become navigable. ![]() ![]() For example, by “sonifying” the data patterns - turning them into a kind of music - the human ear can follow the nuances and shifts of brain states with a surprising deftness. It is here that collaboration between School of Humanities and Sciences and School of Medicine holds great promise, certain to advance the possibilities of representing brain signals in a novel and illuminating way. Recordings from inside the brain yield unprecedentedly rich data-sets of electrical signals both in normal and in seizure states. Interdisciplinary Initiatives Program Round 6 - 2012 ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |