Flavio Fröhlich (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) | Rational Design of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation

Abstract

Brain stimulation has been recognized as a promising therapeutic alternative to pharmacological interventions in both neurology and psychiatry. Despite differences in mechanism of action of different brain stimulation modalities, the common denominator for most of today’s brain stimulation is that (1) stimulation paradigms are pre-programmed and (2) stimulation parameters are chosen by intuition. I will introduce a new approach that employs rational design for the development of adaptive, individualized brain stimulation paradigms that centers on the convergence of biology, medicine, and engineering. Our approach is based on a vertical integration of computational and experimental techniques together with human studies in healthy participants and patients. In my talk, I will provide an update on our understanding of how brain stimulation can target specific oscillatory activity patterns and, more broadly, on the network-level mechanisms of action of brain stimulation. For this talk, I will focus on transcranial current stimulation, in particular transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS). The goal is to provide an informative update on our research and hopefully demonstrate the usefulness of an integrated, rational design approach for the development of novel neurotherapeutics.