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You are invited to the CEITEC Seminar Series aimed at Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. The main goal of this series is to directly convey the knowledge on the-state-of-the-art achievements and directions in this field to researchers via talks of top-scientists from renowned institutions worldwide. This should raise awareness of the latest trends and promote cooperation among scientists from all relevant CEITEC institutions leading to excellent research.
Programme
Neurostimulation applied from Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) electrodes is a primary form of therapeutic intervention in patients suffering from surgically-intractable drug-resistant epilepsy, most notably in forms of mesio-temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE). Inhibitory DBS stimulation to suppress seizures and associated epileptogenic biomarkers is performed with high-frequency stimulation (HFS), typically between 100–165Hz, targeting the Mesio-temporal lobe (MTL) where observed changes in brain rhythms, specifically in the hippocampus, include alterations in high-frequency oscillations (HFOs), namely increases in ripples and reductions in pathological Fast Ripples (FRs), and decreases in pathological interictal spikes (IRs). In the work here, we demonstrate the use of Temporal Interference stimulation to provide a non-invasive focal DBS (130 Hz) of the of the MTL, specifically the hippocampus, which increases physiological ripples, and decreases the number of FRs and IRs in both mouse models of epilepsy and in human patients. Similarly, we show the inability of traditional transcranial stimulation (TCS) to provide similar HFS results. The method could potentially revolutionize how DBS, certainly in epilepsy as results show the excellent penetration of TI into the human hippocampus compared to TCS.
Figure 1: Forms of Temporal interference and ability to scale to larger subjects. Topical electrodes (2 pairs) were placed on the cortex of mice and transcutaneous on human cadavers and finally on human patients in order to investigate a minimally invasive DBS via TI. The target was to focally reach one side of the hippocampus. Coordinates of the 2 pairs were calculated to reach the target and to create a focal non-invasive stimulation. We demonstrated in this work that this stimulation, first tested on animals is totally compatible and scaled to human subjects. We include here the effect of the TI stimulation in both sine waves (as originally developed) and show the innovation of PWM TI (square waves) as a potentially more effective form of TI in the suppression of epileptogenic biomarkers.
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Adam Williamson is a Principal Investigator at the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes (INS), a part of Inserm at Aix-Marseille Université (AMU), France, since April 2014. He is a recipient of the ERC Starting Grant 2016 and ERC Proof-of-Concept Grant 2020, using novel technology-based therapies and neuroprosthetics in the treatment of epilepsy. Generally, his research can be classified as technology-based, focused on in vivo applications for numerous new electronic devices and brain stimulation methods in pathophysiological neuronal networks related to epilepsy.
His most cited works have used organic electronic materials, due to their exceptionally attractive properties for neuroscience, including materials with tunable mechanical flexibility, mixed ionic/electronic conduction, enhanced biocompatibility, significantly improved stimulation and recording interfaces, and the capability for drug delivery. Most recently his work is focused on non-invasive deep brain stimulation in Epilepsy using Temporal Interference.
Adam received his B.Sc. degree and M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering at Texas Tech University, USA, where his work was focused on the fabrication and optimization of silicon transistors with Professor Richard Gale. In 2011 he received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the Technische Universität Ilmenau (TUI), Germany, where his work was focused on the integration of nano-structures into silicon photodiodes with Prof. Martin Hoffmann (the Department of Micromechanical Systems, TUI, Germany). From 2011 to 2014, he worked as a postdoc at TUI with Prof. Andreas Schober (the Department of Nano-Biosystem Technology, TUI, Germany), where his work was focused on nanostructure-enhanced electrophysiology and artificial synapse technology. In 2014 he joined INS in Marseille to focus exclusively on neuroengineering, initially as a post doc with Dr. Christophe Bernard and George Malliaras, and as an independent PI starting in 2016.
