Invasive Neuromodulation

Full course description

At the end of this course, students will have a detailed understanding of neuromodulation approaches, and they will be aware of recent trends and developments in the field. Building on this foundation, various state-of-the-art neuromodulation approaches will be explored in detail, with a particular focus on deep brain stimulation, spinal and sacral neuromodulation, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. This course starts by providing essential knowledge about neuroanatomy and neurophysiology required to understand the basic principles of neuromodulation techniques. To ensure that the entry-level is comparable we give an introductory explanation in week 1 to reactivate the prior knowledge. The students are expected to have general knowledge about the normal functioning of the CNS. MBS1601 will build on the knowledge obtained during the first 8-weeks in the course, Biomedical Challenges. This prevents the current and following courses from being too abstract and allows episodic experiences to connect the discussions and scientific literature. The practicals add depth and practical experience to this overview of methods since students will actively use and see in use these various techniques. It is important to provide and develop this basis, to allow the following courses to build on a broad, but still the relatively superficial treatment of, or meta-perspective on, a young and burgeoning field. These approaches span invasive and non-invasive modulation, from animal to human brains. In the following weeks, we provide an overview of the wide range of available neuromodulation approaches. Each week contains three different forms of teaching, to meet the range of ILOs that span theoretical, applied, and practical knowledge. A practical session in the middle of the week provides concrete knowledge, examples, and helps develop skills.