Assoc Prof Axel Thielscher has received a DKK 5 million grant from Lundbeck Foundation for "Accurate Computational Dose Control for Transcranial Electric and Ultrasound Stimulation".
Transcranial Brain Stimulation (TBS) is a method to induce electric fields in the brain to modulate neural activity. TBS is becoming increasingly relevant as a treatment tool for psychiatric and neurologic patients, e.g. depression therapy and stroke recovery.
The overall aim of the project is to establish a robust, accurate and clinically feasible framework for dose control and optimization of TBS, paving the way for personalized brain stimulation therapies.
One of the major challenges currently limiting the clinical utility of TBS is that although the individual anatomy of the brain and head determines how TBS engages the targeted brain region, current TBS approaches largely ignore anatomical differences across patients, leading to substantial variations in the therapeutic response. Computational methods are needed to estimate and optimize the stimulation patterns in the individual brain.
The project focuses on advancing the computational dosimetry of two powerful and complementary TBS methods, Transcranial Electric Stimulation and Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation.
Axel Thielscher holds a shared position between Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance at Hvidovre Hospital (http://www.drcmr.dk/) and DTU Health Technology, with a co-located research group.
Lundbeck Foundation press release (in Danish): https://www.lundbeckfonden.com/lundbeckfonden-stoetter-20-erfarne-forskere-med-100-mio-kr/.