I-Corps: Non-invasive ultrasound technology for tactile stimulation to create a sense of touch

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发小型可穿戴设备，向用户提供虚拟触觉感知，而非侵入性刺激感觉神经，为用户创造触觉。这将为远程K-12学习提供新的身临其境的虚拟体验，为有认知和运动功能需求的患者提供治疗性医疗保健，并在娱乐游戏和竞技运动员训练期间提供精确的触觉反馈。近期的商业应用似乎专注于医疗保健，为脊髓损伤(SCI)患者等康复患者提供更高的敏感度，这些患者目前依赖大型感觉运动触觉反馈设备，这些设备使用简单的电机来短暂恢复触觉。这种设备被设计成一种可以发射超声波的腕带，可以更准确地瞄准大脑和脊髓中的神经丛，以产生更灵敏的反应。这项技术可能会扩展到医疗、教育和娱乐领域的其他神经技术应用。这个i-Corps项目是基于一种可以发射超声波的腕带的开发，这种超声波可以精确而非侵入性地瞄准大脑、脊髓和其他区域的神经丛。传统的神经调节是通过电流完成的，但最近的研究表明，焦点超声刺激比电刺激有几个优点，包括对组织的深入渗透和增强的时空特异性。这项拟议的技术可能被用来非侵入性地瞄准那些需要侵入性程序才能达到电场的神经(例如，脑深部刺激)。聚焦超声刺激以前被用于中枢神经系统的神经调节(例如，激活神经回路)和外周神经系统(激活脾中的胆碱能神经和膀胱肌控制)。这项创新的核心是基于研究，准确地确定如何在时空上刺激神经细胞。拟议的设备将结合使用超声波的系列成像和新的深度学习算法，这些算法被训练来分割不同的身体部分，包括神经和神经计算模型，该模型编码用于自然神经调节的焦点超声脉冲的学习刺激时空参数。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of small, wearable devices that deliver virtual tactile perception to non-invasively stimulate sensory nerves creating a sense of touch to the user. This will enable new immersive virtual experiences for remote K-12 learning, therapeutic healthcare for patients with cognitive and motor function needs, and precise tactile feedback during recreational gaming as well as training for competitive athletes. Near-term commercial applications appear focus on healthcare to provide increased sensitivity in rehabilitation for patients such as those with spinal cord injuries (SCI) that currently rely on large sensorimotor haptic feedback devices that use simple motors to briefly restore the sense of touch. This device is designed as a wristband that emits ultrasonic waves that may more precisely target nerve clusters in the brain and spinal cord to produce a more sensitive response. The technology may be expanded to other neurotechnology applications in healthcare, education, and entertainment. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a wristband that emits ultrasonic waves that may precisely and noninvasively target nerve clusters in the brain and spinal cord as well as other areas. Traditional neuromodulation is done using electrical current, but recent research has demonstrated that focal ultrasound stimulation has several advantages over electrical stimulation, including deeper penetration into tissue and increased spatio-temporal specificity. The proposed technology may be used to noninvasively target nerves that would require invasive procedures for the electrical field to reach (e.g., deep brain stimulation). Focal ultrasound stimulation previously has been used for neuromodulation in the central nervous system (e.g., activation of neural circuits) and in the peripheral nervous system (activation of cholinergic nerves in the spleen and bladder muscle control). The core of this innovation is based on research to determine exactly how to spatiotemporally stimulate neural cells. The proposed device will combine serial imaging using ultrasound with novel deep learning algorithms trained to segment different body segments including nerves and neural computational models that encode learned stimulation spatiotemporal parameters of the focal ultrasound pulse for naturalistic neuromodulation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.