Device for Multifocal Delivery of Ultrasound Into Deep Brain Regions in Humans

Riis, Thomas; Feldman, Daniel; Losser, Adam; Mickey, Brian; Kubanek, Jan

doi:10.1109/tbme.2023.3313987

Cited by 13 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The ultrasound array system has been described and used previously [7,34]. Briefly, the hardware consisted of two spherically focused phased arrays mounted to a rigid plastic frame such that they were positioned opposite to each other and separated by a distance of 180 mm.…”

Section: Ultrasonic Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These values were established using the knowledge of the distance from target to the transducer elements and dividing the travel distance by the speed of sound in brain tissue. After calculating these delays, we adjusted their value based on the measured speedup values through the subject's skull as described in previous work [7].…”

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We stimulated the VIM contralateral to the tremor-dominant hand carrying the accelerometer. We focused the ultrasound from the phased arrays into this location after applying a correction for the skull attenuation and dephasing [7]. The arrays produce an intensity field with lateral × elevational × axial dimensions of 2.4 mm × 3.6 mm × 20.4 mm (y, z, and x dimensions of the Montreal Neurological Institute coordinate system).…”

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The arrays produce an intensity field with lateral × elevational × axial dimensions of 2.4 mm × 3.6 mm × 20.4 mm (y, z, and x dimensions of the Montreal Neurological Institute coordinate system). The total field volume of 0.142 cm 3 was equivalent to a sphere with a radius of 3.24 mm [7].…”

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ultrasound can be focused through the intact skull and scalp into circumscribed deep brain regions [5,6]. In addition, arrays of transducers can focus ultrasound into specified brain targets programmatically, without moving the device or the subject [5,7]. The precise focusing on command opens unique new possibilities to systematically modulate malfunctioning circuits in each individual.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noninvasive modulation of essential tremor with focused ultrasonic waves

Riis,

Losser,

Kassavetis

et al. 2024

J. Neural Eng.

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Transcranial focused low-intensity ultrasound has the potential to noninvasively modulate confined regions deep inside the human brain, which could provide a new tool for causal interrogation of circuit function in humans. However, it has been unclear whether the approach is potent enough to modulate behavior. To test this, we applied low-intensity ultrasound to a deep brain thalamic target, the ventral intermediate nucleus, in three patients with essential tremor. Brief 15-second stimulations of the target at 10% duty cycle with low-intensity ultrasound, repeated less than 30 times over a period of 90 minutes, nearly abolished tremor (98% and 97% tremor amplitude reduction) in 2 out of the 3 patients. The effect was observed within seconds of the stimulation onset and increased with ultrasound exposure time. The effect gradually vanished following the stimulation, suggesting that the stimulation was safe with no harmful long-term consequences detected. This result demonstrates that low-intensity focused ultrasound can robustly modulate deep brain regions in humans with notable effects on overt motor behavior.

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Section: Ultrasonic Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Targetingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Noninvasive modulation of essential tremor with focused ultrasonic waves

Riis,

Losser,

Kassavetis

et al. 2024

J. Neural Eng.

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A review of functional neuromodulation in humans using low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound

Lee,

Park,

Lee

et al. 2024

Biomed. Eng. Lett.

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Transcranial ultrasonic neuromodulation is a rapidly burgeoning field where low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS), with exquisite spatial resolution and deep tissue penetration, is used to non-invasively activate or suppress neural activity in specific brain regions. Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase of tFUS neuromodulation studies in healthy humans and subjects with central nervous system (CNS) disease conditions, including a recent surge of clinical investigations in patients. This narrative review summarized the findings of human neuromodulation studies using either tFUS or unfocused transcranial ultrasound (TUS) reported from 2013 to 2023. The studies were categorized into two separate sections: healthy human research and clinical studies. A total of 42 healthy human investigations were reviewed as grouped by targeted brain regions, including various cortical, subcortical, and deep brain areas including the thalamus. For clinical research, a total of 22 articles were reviewed for each studied CNS disease condition, including chronic pain, disorder of consciousness, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, substance use disorder, drug-resistant epilepsy, and stroke. Detailed information on subjects/cohorts, target brain regions, sonication parameters, outcome readouts, and stimulatory efficacies were tabulated for each study. In later sections, considerations for planning tFUS neuromodulation in humans were also concisely discussed. With an excellent safety profile to date, the rapid growth of human tFUS research underscores the increasing interest and recognition of its significant potential in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), offering theranostic potential for neurological and psychiatric disease conditions and neuroscientific tools for functional brain mapping.

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