Research: Characterization of a high-selective ultrasound stimulator for cortical and deep brain areas
March 2021: Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering
My previous research experience involved dosimetry studies in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrochemotherapy applications. I have been investigating how the difference between two human head models (a male one and a female one) influenced the distribution of the electric field inside the brain through TMS stimulation. Then, in my master thesis project, I studied a novel treatment of spinal metastasis using electrochemotherapy.
My PhD project involves in the development of a novel non-invasive brain stimulation device that exploit the action of focused ultrasounds (FUS), using a different ultrasound beam other than the standard "Gaussian" one, capable to overcome the problem of the skull, which is present in this kind of applications.
Afterwards this device will be used to stimulate deep brain areas, reachable with lower resolution with nowadays stimulators which use electromagnetic fields, to observe changes in subjects' EEG signals while performing a specific task.
In the meanwhile, I am involved in other two projects:
The first one concerns the Joint Action, in which I deal with cleaning, analysis and processing of ECG signal in order to study the synchrony between heart beats of two different subject during a joint action task.
The third involves a study that combines three techniques: virtual reality (VR) along with EEG recording and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). I am responsible for the creation of the virtual environment, the animations of the avatar within the environment, to the proper simultaneous operation of all the above devices.
The second one concerns the study of tactile sensation caused by ultrasounds, to investigate if ultrasounds can enhance the realism of virtual touch. In this case I deal with the device's technological part and the set-up of the stimulation pattern.