Seminar: Elsa Fouragnan – Improving decision making through ultrasound-induced neuroplasticity

Join us for a seminar from Elsa Fouragnan, Professor in Neuroscience and Director of the Brain Research Imaging Centre at the University of Plymouth.

Improving decision making through ultrasound-induced neuroplasticity

Talk summary

This talk will present recent evidence demonstrating that Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) can induce transient, targeted neuroplastic changes in the human brain, with implications for both mechanistic research and therapeutic development. I will highlight TUS’s precision in targeting deep brain structures, its value in probing neural circuits, and its emerging clinical potential in psychiatric disorders. Drawing on recent human studies; including investigations into decision-making and a novel clinical work in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); I’ll present evidence of TUS’s effects on task-related neural changes, behaviour and symptoms demonstrating its promise as a transformative neuromodulation tool.

Bio

Elsa Fouragnan is a Professor in Neuroscience and the Director of the Brain Research Imaging Centre at the University of Plymouth, UK. Her work focuses on the pioneering use of transcranial ultrasound stimulation in humans, particularly in brain circuits related to decision making and learning. Her career transitioned from biomedical engineering to neuroscience, with postdoctoral fellowships at Glasgow and Oxford. In 2018, she started her lab to study neuroplasticity induced by focused ultrasound in brain circuits mediating adaptive and dysfunctional decision making. After many proof of concepts studies showing that ultrasound can induced neuroplasticity in humans, she is now bringing this technology forward to apply it to mental health disorders, particularly Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Alcohol Use Disorder. Her lab organises annual workshops to train academics and non-academics to use the technology and contributes to ITRUSST, a consortium advancing ultrasound for neuromodulation. Elsa is also a UKRI Future Leader Fellow, BBSRC recipient and an ARIA R&D creator.

This is an in-person seminar at Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus (exact location will be confirmed soon). See our campus map for directions.

Join us after the seminar for refreshments and to continue discussions.