Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 10, 2025

MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Patients with Medically-refractory Essential Tremor
Published on: December 13, 2017
Towards Ultrasound Imaging-based Closed-loop Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Tremor Suppression
Nitin Sharma1,2,3, Xiangming Xue2, Ashwin Iyer1
1Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NC.
Abstract:
Despite several decades of research investigating the use of peripheral electrical stimulation (ES) for tremor suppression in an upper limb, ES design for effective tremor suppression remains elusive. The article reviews sensing approaches to measure limb tremors and existing musculoskeletal models of tremor and their use in closed-loop suppression control. We also motivate a case for incorporating ultrasound (US) imaging into the closed-loop control for increased tremor suppression efficacy. When combined with wearable US transducers, the novel approach could be a promising technique to advance musculoskeletal models that investigate tremor mechanisms and new ES closed-loop techniques with personalized stimulation parameters for tremor suppression.

