Resumen
The main objective of NEUROSONIC project is to develop innovative transcranial therapeutical ultrasound technology by
using reconfigurable acoustic holograms, enabling an unprecedent control of the therapeutic beam for the treatment of
neurological diseases. Traditional technology for therapeutical ultrasound is based on phased-arrays devices, which are
currently limited by the number of active radiating elements of the transducer. State-of-the-art systems result in bulky and
expensive devices which limit their clinical application. The use of reconfigurable holograms overcome these limitations and
offers the finest control of the therapeutic beam beyond traditional approaches based on phased-arrays or traditional
acoustic lenses. Reconfigurable holographic metasurfaces are a paradigm change in therapeutical ultrasound. They fully
exploit the time-reversal symmetry of the acoustic propagation, allowing an unprecedent targeting resolution. This results in
ultrasound beams that can be adapted in real time to any therapeutical target inside the brain, enabling the treatment of
neurological diseases by several mechanisms. These include drug-delivery in the central nervous system by the localized,
transient, and safe opening of the blood-brain barrier or high-intensity focused ultrasound for thermal ablation, but also
emerging therapies as brain neuromodulation or mild hyperthermia to enhance chemotherapy. By using reconfigurable
holographic metasurfaces, therapeutical ultrasound beams can be targeted to any point in the brain with unprecedent
resolution, skull aberrations can be compensated, and the focal spot can be adapted to treat complex and arbitrary 3D
volumes, resulting in a personalized and low-cost treatment for neurological diseases. Finally, we remark that the proposed
technology can be migrated to any other medical and industrial ultrasound applications beyond neurology, as it enables the
finest real-time and high-power beam synthesis.
