Acoustic Fresnel lens to focus ultrasound for in vitro neuromodulation

In vitro neuromodulation studies play a crucial role in understanding the underlying interaction mechanisms between cells and ultrasound, which is important in the development of new therapies for various neurological disorders. Acoustic focusing, the ability to focus ultrasound at a specific focal length with high spatial resolution, provides a...

Biophysical mechanisms responsible for ultrasound neuromodulation in bilayer lipid membranes: Enabling the research that uncovers the mysterious interactions between ultrasound and neurons

Medical technology has seen great progress over the last centuries, developing increasingly more specialised therapy to benefit human health. The rise of the pharmaceutical industry and the research it drives are contributors to this success. However, in humanity's attempt to tackle more and more complex health issues, the conventional methods...

Energy Efficient High Voltage Driver for High Frequency Ultrasound Medical Applications

Noninvasive brain stimulation plays an essential role in diagnosing and treating diseases of the brain. This stimulation can affect disease-related changes in brain activation, inhibition, or connectivity. Ultrasound neuromodulation is a rapidly growing field of noninvasive brain stimulation. In a form of acoustic pressure waves, ultrasound can...

Epileptic seizure detection using near-ear EEG

60 million people around the world have epilepsy, which is a neurological disorder that severely impacts their day to day life negatively. Currently available methods to reduce the effects of epilepsy are either ineffective or require expensive and invasive surgery. A new method has been found that can suppress epilepsy without the need of...

Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Through an In-Ear Device For Epilepsy Treatment

Several studies have illustrated that Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation (t-VNS) is an effective method for epileptic treatment. In contrast to the classical invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) which is already a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved therapy for epileptic treatment, t-VNS does not require surgical intervention....

Stent with Piezoelectric Transducers for High Spatial Resolution Ultrasound Neuromodulation - a Finite Element Analysis

DEEP brain stimulation is currently the only technique used in the clinical setting, capable of stimulating the deep brain nuclei. Recently, low intensity focused ultrasound has been shown to reversibly modulate brain activity. At present, ultrasound neuromodulation is performed through the transcranial pathway. This requires the ultrasound...

Object detection inside a wearable ultrasound neuromodulator patch: A deeper look into implementing ultrasound neuromodulator patches and how to find nerves using computer vision techniques

Neuromodulation of the vagus nerve is used as a treatment for all kinds of ailments and even as a means of improving the wearer's physiology, however, this form of treatment is not popular due to its invasive nature, high chance of side effects, and short period between reimplementation surgery, as such an alternative is sought in the form of...

Integrating Ultrasound Neuromodulation and Imaging: A System Concept for a Non-Invasive Image-Guided Vagus Nerve Stimulator

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) has been proven to be an effective treatment for patients suffering from drug­-resistant epilepsy. Current vagus nerve stimulators are either implantable devices or bulky, handheld devices. The implant consists of a pulse generator beneath the skin of the chest, connected to electrodes that are wired to the cervical...

CMOS driving channel for ultrasonic neurovascular stent

Ultrasound stimulation is slowly emerging as an effective treatment to alleviate multiple mental illnesses. The advantage of ultrasound stimulation stems from the ability to stimulate regions that are spatially far off from the stimulating device without sacrificing spatial resolution. This directly implies the ability to devise minimally...

Ultrasound Transmitter for Non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation

The main objective of this thesis is to design a transmitter channel which is implemented in a 2D phased-array ultrasound neuromodulation system aiming for the vagus nerve stimulation. The vagus nerve has the widest distribution in the parasympathetic system and it oversees several important bodily functions such as the control of mood, immune...

An ultrasound receiver channel for vagus nerve imaging

The neuromodulation modality based on the focused ultrasonic stimulation (FUS) has gained its interests for being non-invasive while having unprecedented high spatial resolution and deep penetration. The commercially available image-guided FUS device for neuromodulation setups are normally bulky, by employing an 1-D array transducer element to...