Who are we and what do we work on?
Researchers in the Cognitive Neuromodulation group of Lennart Verhagen are interested in modulating behaviour and brain circuits to better grasp human cognition. Such an interventional approach, where we temporarily alter brain activity, is important for a deeper understanding of the workings of the brain and for the development of therapeutic interventions.
Existing neuromodulation techniques are either highly invasive (deep brain stimulation; DBS), or restricted to the surface of the brain (transcranial magnetic stimulation; TMS). We are working on a novel technique to overcome these limitations: transcranial ultrasonic stimulation (TUS). TUS is an application focused ultrasound (FUS), where ultrasound beams are focused on any target in the body.
In recent years, the interest in using this TUS has increased, and more and more research groups and institutes are interested in using TUS to assess the workings of deeper brain regions. The ability to successfully modulate these regions holds great promise for treatments of patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse disorder, Parkinson’s disease and many more.
Although the field is evolving rapidly, TUS is far removed from being a plug-and-play technology. Instead, using it requires extensive expertise, technical knowledge and equipment. Despite their unique projects and research objectives, researchers across campus face common pitfalls, and challenges. We believe that collaborating across disciplines and centralizing the technical support is the best way to foster the innovation of the technology and to facilitate its application in the lab and clinic.
The initiative
Lennart is the director of the Radboud FUS initiative; a campus-wide support network to advance focused ultrasound research and its clinical application. The FUS initiative is invested in building a FUS community to accelerate focused ultrasound innovation, bolster research, and lay the foundation for clinical application. In addition to supporting researchers, the FUS initiative supports technicians, lab managers, and research coordinators across campus. We are convinced that technological innovation is only possible if we join forces across the borders of our own institutes.
Our main goal is to connect researchers across faculties, research institutes and disciplines, and to bring together all those interested in working with focused ultrasound; whether is for use in laboratory animals, health human participants, in the MRI scanner, or to explore potential clinical applications in patient populations. By working together we can focus on moving forward, instead of re-inventing the wheel at each research institute.
Our connection with the Healthy Brain pillar
The FUS initiative is strongly connected with the Healthy Brain pillar, and most of our members are interested in the working of the brain, either in healthy individuals or in the context of psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Just like the healthy brain pillar, we strive to connect researchers across disciplines, backgrounds, research institutes and faculties. Most of our members are affiliated with the Donders Centre for Cognition, or the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, but also reside at the faculty of medical sciences (preclinical imaging centre, the departments of psychiatry and neurology), the Donders Centre for Neuroscience and the Behavioural Science Institute. Examples of other initiatives on campus with which we share common ground are NeuroTech EU and Radboud AI.