Imaging of tissue displacement during focused ultrasound neuromodulation in vivo

Focused Ultrasound (FUS) has been shown to modulate neural activity in the brain. Our group has recently shown feasibility of FUS modulation of peripheral nerves in vivo. However, the mechanism of FUS on the peripheral nervous system (PNS) is not known and has never been imaged in vivo. In order to unveil both the mechanism as well as provide an image-guided approach to modulation monitoring, we designed a new transducer set-up incorporating both a FUS transducer and an imaging array. Thus, we can simultaneously image the mechanical perturbation of the tissue during modulation in vivo.