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Bidirectional and state-dependent modulation of brain activity by transcranial focused ultrasound in non-human primates.

Authors :
Yang PF
Phipps MA
Jonathan S
Newton AT
Byun N
Gore JC
Grissom WA
Caskey CF
Chen LM
Source :
Brain stimulation [Brain Stimul] 2021 Mar-Apr; Vol. 14 (2), pp. 261-272. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Jan 15.
Publication Year :
2021

Abstract

Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) stimulation under MRI guidance, coupled with functional MRI (fMRI) monitoring of effects, offers a precise, noninvasive technology to dissect functional brain circuits and to modulate altered brain functional networks in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Here we show that ultrasound at moderate intensities modulated neural activity bi-directionally. Concurrent sonication of somatosensory areas 3a/3b with 250 kHz FUS suppressed the fMRI signals produced there by peripheral tactile stimulation, while at the same time eliciting fMRI activation at inter-connected, off-target brain regions. Direct FUS stimulation of the cortex resulted in different degrees of BOLD signal changes across all five off-target regions, indicating that its modulatory effects on active and resting neurons differed. This is the first demonstration of the dual suppressive and excitative modulations of FUS on a specific functional circuit and of ability of concurrent FUS and MRI to evaluate causal interactions between functional circuits with neuron-class selectivity.<br />Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing interests.<br /> (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1876-4754
Volume :
14
Issue :
2
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Brain stimulation
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
33460838
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2021.01.006