I-Corps: Enhancing Sensory Processing via Noninvasive Neuromodulation

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technology that accurately perceives details of tactile, auditory, and visual stimuli required for completing the tasks necessary for daily life and independent living. Impaired sensory processing may cause misperceptions and miscommunication that can be frustrating, debilitating, and dangerous. This technology rapidly modulates sensory processing and could provide an immediate benefit across many potential use cases. By restoring clear sensory processing, this technology seeks to facilitate a return to socializing, exercise, hobbies, and employment for many individuals who have withdrawn from those activities due to chronic sensory issues. An enhancement of sensory processing may improve the ability to communicate easily, ambulate safely, and handle objects with dexterity.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a method of rapidly enhancing the accuracy and detail of sensory information processed in the brain via a noninvasive neuromodulation technique. In both animal and human studies, enhanced sensory processing translated to increased sensory acuity as evidenced by improved performance on sensory tasks. This technology includes wearable neural stimulation patches that could treat a variety of clinical causes of impaired sensory processing. This patches cause tonic activation of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system in the brain and have resulted in a rapid enhancement of thalamic sensory processing. This NE-enhanced sensory processing state increased the perceptual sensitivity of awake animals performing sensory tasks. The vagus nerve can be stimulated noninvasively in humans by delivering electric current transcutaneously, providing an effective and safe method of neuromodulation. This novel bioelectronic method of using continuous tonic VNS provides sensory enhancement on-demand.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.