CMU Neural Engineering Virtual Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Jan Kubanek, Assistant Professor, University of Utah
Abstract: Brain imaging has provided important insights into brain function, but there are growing demands from the neuroscience community and federal agencies to validate these insights causally. Rigorous testing of imaging-based models has remained a challenge because available noninvasive tools are limited in their capacity to causally manipulate specific circuits and networks. Transcranial focused ultrasound provides a new tool for safe, noninvasive, and focal modulation of deep brain circuits. Because ultrasound elicits changes in neural activity and network connectivity in single subjects, it is possible to study the causal involvement of specific circuits on behavior or disease signs in each individual. This tool will enable researchers and clinicians to establish the causal role of specific neural biomarkers and network nodes in behavior and cognition. In this talk, we will show how this approach can be used to map circuit function in the human brain. We will discuss the key premises for the approach as well as future directions.
About the Speaker: Dr. Kubanek has received his PhD in Neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis. He obtained postdoctoral training at Stanford, where he investigated how ultrasonic waves modulate the activity of ion channels. As a faculty at the University of Utah, his team has developed devices for controlled modulation of the human brain, and applied the technology to modulate symptoms of essential tremor, major depression, and chronic pain. His group has been supported by grants from the NIH, NSF, and the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. As a founder of SPIRE Therapeutics, the team aims to bring this emerging technology to FDA approval by conducting multi-site clinical studies.