Brain Stimulation Laboratory

A specialist Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC) laboratory enabling research that targets the causes of neurological disorders
Professor Elsa Fouragnan looking at a Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation image on screen
The Brain Stimulation Laboratory at the Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC) provides various devices for non-invasive brain stimulation.
The Laboratory is allowing our researchers to investigate TUS safety and biomechanics, as well as to undertake clinical studies to develop treatments and therapies.
Our research includes:
  • Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) – a safe and accurate way to access deep parts of the brain
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – used to stimulate cortical areas and an accurate approach to measure cortical excitability
  • Transcranial alternating current stimulation (TACS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS) – relevant for cortical stimulation with a dedicated frequency, allowing brain entrainment.
This will lead to real clinical impact by shedding light on how impaired circuit mechanisms cause specific neurological or psychiatric symptoms and, in turn, lead to clinical interventions that target causes rather than symptoms. The School of Psychology and Peninsula Medical School are making strides in this area by exploring non-invasive neurostimulation.
 
 

Relevance of non-invasive brain stimulation

There are two main approaches to altering the brain – medication and functional neurosurgery – that can be effective but have significant limitations. Medications often come with considerable side effects due to the delivery of drugs to multiple areas of the brain, while neurosurgery is invasive, making it unsafe or inappropriate for many individuals. The effects of these interventions limit their use in non-clinical contexts, reducing their relevance for scientific research.
Non-invasive methods such as TMS, TACS, TDCS and TUS are safe, painless and induce temporary changes in brain function. This makes them suitable for both scientific research (such as targeting specific brain areas to assess their importance for particular functions) and clinical practice (where they can be applied to a wide range of patients with minimal side effects).

Combination with neuroimaging

BRIC facilities enable the assessment of how non-invasive brain stimulation affects brain function through the use of MRI or EEG techniques. MRI can reveal the spatial effects of stimulation and provide biochemical insights, such as those obtained from magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and EEG is valuable for achieving high temporal resolution in measuring brain activity changes.

Selecting the appropriate technique

Each non-invasive modality has advantages and disadvantages. TMS is very effective for inducing cortical stimulation, and although its spatial accuracy may be limited, it is considered the gold standard for measuring cortical excitability. TACS and TDCS are also used to target cortical areas.
These techniques are particularly useful when the goal is to induce brain stimulation at a specific frequency, facilitating brain entrainment and alterations in functional connectivity. TUS is the more effective for reaching the deeper regions of the brain and its spatial accuracy is significant, allowing for precise targeting in these areas.

Our research

At BRIC, we utilise non-invasive brain stimulation in a diverse range of research areas, developing significant expertise and gaining worldwide recognition in TUS. TUS is currently applied in our lab to investigate decision-making and balance processes in the brain. The primary clinical applications focus on patients dealing with addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease.
Brain Stimulation Lab

People

 

Key publications
Yaakub, S.N., White, T.A., Roberts, J., Martin, E., Verhagen, L., Stagg, C.J., Hall, S., Fouragnan, E.F. Transcranial focused ultrasound-mediated neurochemical and functional connectivity changes in deep cortical regions in humans. Nature Communications 14, 5318 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40998-0
Yaakub, S.N., White, T.A., Kerfoot, E., Verhagen, L., Hammers, A., Fouragnan, E.F. Pseudo-CTs from T1-weighted MRI for planning of low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound neuromodulation: An open-source tool. Brain Stimulation 16, 75-78 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2023.01.838
Bault, N., Coricelli, G., & Rusconi, E. (2019). Probing the decisional brain with non-invasive brain stimulation. In A Handbook of Process Tracing Methods: 2nd Edition (Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Kuehberger & Johnson, pp. 249–269). New York and London: Routledge.
Fouragnan E F, Chau BKH, Folloni D, Kolling N, Verhagen L, Klein-Flügge M, Tankelevitch L, Papageorgiou GK, Aubry J-F 2019 'The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioural change' Nature Neuroscience22, (5) 797-808, DOIPEARL
Fouragnan E, Queirazza F, Retzler C, Mullinger KJ & Philiastides MG 2017 'Spatiotemporal neural characterisation of prediction error valence and surprise during reward learning in humans' Scientific Reports7, (1), DOIPEARL
Fouragnan E, Retzler C, Mullinger K & Philiastides MG 2015 'Two spatiotemporally distinct value systems shape reward-based learning in the human brain' Nature Communications6, (1), DOIPEARL.
Fouragnan E, Chau BKH, Folloni D, Kolling N, Verhagen L, Klein-Flügge M, Tankelevitch L, Papageorgiou GK, Aubry JF, Sallet J, Rushworth MFS. The macaque anterior cingulate cortex translates counterfactual choice value into actual behavioral change. Nature Neuroscience, 22(5), 797-808. 2019. doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0375-6
Folloni D, Verhagen L, Mars R, Fouragnan E, Aubry JF, Rushworth MFS, Sallet J. Non-invasive and reversible manipulation of activity in deep structures of the primate brain using focal ultrasound neurostimulation. Neuron. 101, 1109–1116. February 2019.
Zhang, Q., Strangman, G. E., & Ganis, G. (2009). Adaptive filtering to reduce global interference in non-invasive NIRS measures of brain activation: how well and when does it work? Neuroimage, 45(3), 788-794.
Barrios, V., Kwan, V. S., Ganis, G., Gorman, J., Romanowski, J., & Keenan, J. P. (2008). Elucidating the neural correlates of egoistic and moralistic self-enhancement. Conscious Cogn, 17(2), 451-456.
Ganis, G., Keenan, J. P., Kosslyn, S. M., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2000). Transcranial magnetic stimulation of primary motor cortex affects mental rotation. Cereb Cortex, 10(2), 175-180.
Keenan, J. P., Freund, S., Hamilton, R. H., Ganis, G., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2000). Hand response differences in a self-face identification task. Neuropsychologia, 38(7), 1047-1053.
Keenan, J. P., Ganis, G., Freund, S., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2000). Self-face identification is increased with left hand responses. Laterality, 5(3), 259-268.
Kelly, K. J., Murray, E., Barrios, V., Gorman, J., Ganis, G., & Keenan, J. P. (2009). The effect of deception on motor cortex excitability. Soc Neurosci, 4(6), 570-574.
Kosslyn, S. M., Pascual-Leone, A., Felician, O., Camposano, S., Keenan, J. P., Thompson, W. L., Ganis, G., Sukel, K. E., & Alpert, N. M. (1999). The role of area 17 in visual imagery: convergent evidence from PET and rTMS. Science, 284(5411), 167-170.
Kwan, V. S., Barrios, V., Ganis, G., Gorman, J., Lange, C., Kumar, M., Shepard, A., & Keenan, J. P. (2007). Assessing the neural correlates of self-enhancement bias: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Exp Brain Res, 182(3), 379-385.
Sparing, R., Mottaghy, F. M., Ganis, G., Thompson, W. L., Topper, R., Kosslyn, S. M., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2002). Visual cortex excitability increases during visual mental imagery--a TMS study in healthy human subjects. Brain Res, 938(1-2), 92-97.
Theoret, H., Kobayashi, M., Ganis, G., Di Capua, P., & Pascual-Leone, A. (2002). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of human area MT/V5 disrupts perception and storage of the motion aftereffect. Neuropsychologia, 40(13), 2280-2287.
Roser, M., Evans, J. S. B., McNair, N. S., Fuggetta, G., Handley, S. J., Carroll, L. S., & Trippas, D. (2015). Investigating reasoning with multiple integrated neuroscientific methods. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 41.
Mcallister CJ, Ronnqvist KC, Woodhall GL, Stanford IM, Furlong PL & Hall SD. (2013). Oscillatory Beta Activity Mediates Neuroplastic Effects of Motor Cortex Stimulation in Humans. Journal of Neuroscience 33(18): 7919-7927.
Rhodes E. Gaetz W, Marsden J and Hall SD. (2018). Transient alpha and beta synchrony underlies preparatory recruitment of directional motor networks. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 0(6):867-875. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01250.
 

Therapeutic focused ultrasound

Ultrasound – best known for imaging unborn babies during pregnancy – can be used to treat cancer, as well as neurological and psychiatric conditions. This is possible because ultrasound waves can cause the ablation of tissues (at very high intensity) or alteration of brain signals which in turn can be used to restore brain function (at low intensity), offering great promise to patients.
Watch the animation for an introduction to the applications of therapeutic ultrasound.