Fundamentals & Applications of TUS Workshop

Join us for the Brainbox Initiative Fundamentals & Applications of Transcranial Focused Ultrasound (TUS/tFUS) workshop.

Ultrasound is best known for imaging unborn babies. In this instance, short pulses of ultrasound waves travel through the body and their echoes are used to form images, with a very limited amount of energy remaining in the body. Conversely, in therapeutic uses, when ultrasonic waves are focused on a small region inside the body, they interact with the tissue at this point, by depositing energy as heat or acting on the tissue by mechanical forces. When low-amplitude pulses are used to exert mechanical forces, the tissue function can be altered for a short period of time. By focusing ultrasound through the skull, this effect can be used to change the ways our brain behaves, in a safe, transient, and reversible way. This has great therapeutic potential for treating disorders of the brain, like neurological disorders (Parkinson’s disease) but also psychiatric disorders (addiction, depression etc.). The technique is called Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS).

The field of TUS brings together engineers, physicists, neuroscientists, and medical practitioners who are all interested in developing and using novel brain stimulation techniques. This field is only at the very beginning of its growth and much work is still needed to understand the effective application of TUS to modulate brain functions and to establish consensus on safety, ways to conduct experiments and standardization, in order to accelerate the technique towards clinical translation.

Programme Outline

Across three days, the Brainbox Initiative will be joined by world-leading academic and technical experts in transcranial-focused ultrasound (tFUS/TUS) techniques for a series of interactive sessions designed especially to give attendees a solid understanding of the physical and biomechanics bases, challenges and potentials; TUS study development and applications; and how to design, prepare, carry out, and analyse TUS studies in a safe and replicable way.

Over the course of three days, we explore topics such as:

• The basic principles and physiology of transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation;
• An introduction to the basic principles and physiology of TUS;
• The pros and cons of using TUS and ways to counteract these limitations;
• An in-depth look at the safety and efficiency considerations for TUS studies;
• Practical demonstrations of different kinds of TUS protocols, including online & offline-TUS;
• Considerations for TUS study design, supplemented with group discussions;
• Interactive, practical demonstrations of TUS techniques, measurements, and simulation of acoustic fields;
• And much more.

Our workshop programmes are created in collaboration with leading neuroscientists from around the world. The programmes for all of our Brainbox Initiative workshops are developed in conjunction with the Brainbox Initiative Scientific Committee and other leading neuroscience researchers.

View the preliminary programme

Workshop Organisers & Speakers

• Prof Elsa Fouragnan, University of Plymouth
• Dr Miriam Klein-Flugge, University of Oxford
• Dr Elly Martin, University College London
• Dr Suraya Dunsford, University of Plymouth
• Dr Sophie Clarke, University of Plymouth
• Eleonora Carpino, PhD candidate, University of Plymouth
• Dr Nadege Bault, University of Plymouth
• Dan Phillips, Brainbox