Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates the activity of primary somatosensory cortex in humans

Improved methods of noninvasively modulating human brain function are needed. Here we probed the influence of transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) targeted to the human primary somatosensory cortex (S1) on sensory-evoked brain activity and sensory discrimination abilities. The lateral and axial sp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNature neuroscience Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 322 - 329
Main Authors Legon, Wynn, Sato, Tomokazu F, Opitz, Alexander, Mueller, Jerel, Barbour, Aaron, Williams, Amanda, Tyler, William J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Nature Publishing Group 01.02.2014
Subjects
Acoustic Stimulation
Acoustics
Alkaloids
Brain
Brain Mapping
Discrimination (Psychology) - physiology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory - physiology
Functional Laterality
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Neurosciences
Parietal lobes
Patient outcomes
Physiological aspects
Skull Base - diagnostic imaging
Somatosensory Cortex - diagnostic imaging
Somatosensory Cortex - physiology
Ultrasonic imaging
Ultrasonics in medicine
Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial - methods
United States > US
Virginia
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Summary:Improved methods of noninvasively modulating human brain function are needed. Here we probed the influence of transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) targeted to the human primary somatosensory cortex (S1) on sensory-evoked brain activity and sensory discrimination abilities. The lateral and axial spatial resolution of the tFUS beam implemented were 4.9 mm and 18 mm, respectively. Electroencephalographic recordings showed that tFUS significantly attenuated the amplitudes of somatosensory evoked potentials elicited by median nerve stimulation. We also found that tFUS significantly modulated the spectral content of sensory-evoked brain oscillations. The changes produced by tFUS on sensory-evoked brain activity were abolished when the acoustic beam was focused 1 cm anterior or posterior to S1. Behavioral investigations showed that tFUS targeted to S1 enhanced performance on sensory discrimination tasks without affecting task attention or response bias. We conclude that tFUS can be used to focally modulate human cortical function.
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ISSN:1097-6256
1546-1726
DOI:10.1038/nn.3620