Webinars
Launched in 2020, the Brainbox Initiative Webinar Series is a free resource designed to stimulate the ongoing discussion and promotion of the fascinating work being carried out in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation and imaging research. Our webinars are hosted by a global range of guest speakers from academia and industry alike to provide a broad, accessible, and engaging series of talks and discussions that is open to everyone. We will continue to add further webinars to this series over time, so make sure to check back here and on our YouTube channel to ensure that you don’t miss any talks.
Changing Connectomes: Improved Cognition Through Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation
Non-invasive neuromodulation represents a major opportunity for brain and mental health interventions. Based on its ability to target deep-brain structures, transcranial focused ultrasound neuromodulation is the most promising approach, destined to change future interventions. However, the mechanism by which ultrasound neuromodulation leads to longer-term cognitive changes remains unclear.
Here, we unravel the temporal dynamics of the ultrasound neuromodulation effects in humans. We tested the biological (MRI resting-state functional connectivity) and behavioural (performance in stop-signal task) effects of focused ultrasound stimulation of inferior frontal cortex or thalamus on healthy participants. Our findings reveal that the effects of ultrasound neuromodulation are predominantly time-constrained and spatially distributed in brain regions functionally connected with the directly stimulated area.
Furthermore, these biological effects are indicative of behavioural changes that persist for at least an hour following stimulation. We will also discuss how network metrics change after stimulation and discuss some ongoing work in our lab on developing closed-loop neuromodulation for brain and mental health.
Finally, we will give some information on the launch of The Centre for Neurotechnology, Neuromodulation, and Neurotherapeutics at the University of Nottingham.
Speaker: Marcus Kaiser
Marcus Kaiser is Professor of Neuroinformatics at the University of Nottingham. He is leading a team using computer simulations and brain stimulation devices to improve cognitive performance in patients suffering from severe mental illness (schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder). The long-term goal is to replace pharmaceutical drugs for treating mental health conditions with non-invasive brain stimulation interventions.
He is author of 'Changing Connectomes' (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/changing-connectomes ). He is Chair of Neuroinformatics UK, Chair of the Neuroinformatics SIG of the British Neuroscience Association (BNA), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology (FRSB).
Past webinars
You can find below our full range of past Brainbox Initiative Webinars, available for you to view on demand. We work closely will all of our speakers to ensure that we bring as much of this content to you as possible, and we will continue to keep this page updated as we bring more webinars into the range.
