Prof Marom Bikson discusses his work with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

Marom Bikson is a Biomedical Engineer. He is a Professor at the City College of New York City and also the co-director of the Neural Engineering Group. Marom has been at the City College of New York for over 15 years. He has a B.Sc in Biomedical Engineering from John Hopkins University and a PhD from Case Western University Cleveland. He cofounded Soterix Medical. Marom's research group studies the effects of electricity on the human body and applies this knowledge toward the development of medical devices and electrical safety guidelines.

In today’s episode, Marom talks about his work with Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and how it works. He also talks about his work with NC Neuromodulation and Soterix Medical

 

Top three takeaways:

1. Transcranial means, through the cranium. And the thing that you're stimulating is targets inside the cortex. So you're trying to identify targets centrally that you think that you can activate. To lead to different therapeutic outcomes.
2. TDCS works by the application of direct electrical current to electrodes placed on the scalp.
3. “A lot of times when we think about TDCS, we think about changing the sensitivity. And then the question comes in with a sensitivity to what. Often TDCS is combined with other forms of therapy, like behavioural therapy, or physical therapy

 

[0:00] Ladan introduces the episode and the guest, Prof Marom Bikson

 

[1:50] Marom introduces himself and his work

 

[2:30] Marom discusses the wave of persistent COVID symptoms that are referred to as neuro COVID and talks about some of the work he and his colleagues are doing around it.

 

[4:50] Marom describes how Transcranial Direct Current Simulation work.
“ transcranial means, through the cranium. And the thing that you're stimulating is targets inside the cortex. So you're trying to identify targets centrally that you think that you can activate. To lead to different therapeutic outcomes.”

 

[6:00] Marom discusses papers documenting the use of TDCS in different therapeutic areas such as depression and pain.

 

[7:45]  Currently, there is no FDA clearance for TDCS in the US so most of the work now happens in clinical trials. 

 

[10:10] TDCS works by the application of direct electrical current to electrodes placed on the scalp.

 

[13:40] “A lot of times when we think about TDCS, we think about changing the sensitivity. And then the question comes in with a sensitivity to what. Often TDCS is combined with other forms of therapy, like behavioural therapy, or physical therapy.”

 

[16:20] Marom talks specifically about his research and some of his breakthroughs.

 

[20:50] Marom talks about his company, Soterix medical; the background for starting the company and what kind of problems they are solving

 

[27:40] Marom discusses NYC Neuromodulation which he co-founded.

“NYC neuromodulation has now run. I think about five times the last time was an online version. The two times before that we worked with other organizations, the North American neuromodulation society was partnered for one and neuromodulation of science was partnered for another.”

 

[33:50] So what are some Big pieces of advice that you would say to other neural engineers?

“ If you're loving what you're doing, then that probably means you're on the right path.”