Project Summary
This S10 grant application requests funds to purchase a transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) instrument
platform for translational neuroscience studies in human and nonhuman primates. FUS is a means of non-
invasively modulating neural activity, similar to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrical
stimulation, through the application of ultrasonic acoustic vibrations, and can be implemented safely across a
variety of species. Importantly, FUS has a number of important advantages over magnetic and electrical
neuromodulation, including better spatial resolution (as small as .5 mm), and true three-dimensional targeting.
Additionally, FUS technology has novel applications beyond direct stimulation, such as the ability to fenestrate
the blood brain barrier for defined periods of time, with high spatial precision, opening new avenues for
inducing noninvasive chemogenetic and optogenetic receptor expression. These strengths make FUS an ideal
translational neuromodulatory technology for testing the causal relationship between neural functioning and
behavior in a variety of species. Here we are requesting the funds to outfit the Center for Biomedical Imaging
and Neuromodulation (C-BIN) at the Nathan Kline Institute with state-of-the-art, MRI compatible ultrasound
instrumentation that is integrated with neuronavigation. This instrument system will complement our current
TMS and transcranial electrical stimulation instruments. C-BIN has a long history of implementing novel
neuroscientific techniques, and the integration of FUS would complement a number of mental health research
projects that are ongoing and proposed within the institute. As a form of noninvasive neuromodulation, the
proposed instruments would provide a benefit to current mental health research investigating the therapeutic
effects of neuromodulation in major depressive disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease, schizophrenia, and post-
traumatic stress disorder, and the neural underpinning of functional resting-state in nonhuman primates and
humans. The addition of FUS as a translational neuromodulatory technique also opens the door to a large
variety of new mental health related projects.