From Targeting to Simulation: Transducer Positioning and Localization for Focused Ultrasound Transcranial Applications

Focused ultrasound (FUS) is being explored for a variety of non-thermal transcranial applications, such as neuromodulation and blood-brain barrier opening. Although MRI is the gold standard for image guidance during FUS procedures, researchers are increasingly exploring other navigation methods, such as optical tracking, to guide ultrasound beam placement based on pre-acquired images for targeting outside the MRI setting. Current offline neuronavigation methods perform guidance based on the free-field ultrasound beam and do not incorporate attenuation and aberration effects of the skull. Here, we developed a pipeline that combines optical tracking and acoustic simulations to obtain accurate maps of the acoustic pressure within the skull.