Name: Ines Violante (Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences, King’s College London)

Title: Non-Invasive Modulation of Deep Brain Regions with Temporal Interference Stimulation

Abstract: Deep brain structures such as the hippocampus and thalamus are central to memory, sleep and the rhythms that coordinate activity across brain networks, yet they lie beyond the reach of conventional non-invasive stimulation. Temporal interference stimulation offers a way to target these regions non-invasively. In this talk I will describe the development and validation of this approach in humans. I will show how temporal interference can modulate hippocampal activity during memory tasks and engage thalamic rhythms such as sleep spindles, and how combining stimulation with imaging allows us to measure its effects on local and network activity. I will then discuss what these perturbations reveal about the role of deep brain regions and their rhythms in cognition and sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Finally, I will consider potential applications to neurological and psychiatric conditions in which these deep circuits are implicated, including epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease and depression.

Website / links: https://nsnlab.github.io/