title: Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates the activity of primary somatosensory cortex in humans.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Wynn
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Legon
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Tomokazu F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.affiliation: 1] Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA. [2] Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Georg-August-University, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Opitz
authors.affiliation: School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Jerel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbour
authors.affiliation: Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: 1] Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, Roanoke, Virginia, USA. [2] School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. [3] Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: William J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Tyler
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000470:Alkaloids; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005073:Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019291:Skull Base / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D017585:Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; C110131:Wilcox compound