title: Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation of human primary visual cortex.
abstract: Transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) is making progress as a new non-invasive mode of regional brain stimulation. Current evidence of FUS-mediated neurostimulation for humans has been limited to the observation of subjective sensory manifestations and electrophysiological responses, thus warranting the identification of stimulated brain regions. Here, we report FUS sonication of the primary visual cortex (V1) in humans, resulting in elicited activation not only from the sonicated brain area, but also from the network of regions involved in visual and higher-order cognitive processes (as revealed by simultaneous acquisition of blood-oxygenation-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging). Accompanying phosphene perception was also reported. The electroencephalo graphic (EEG) responses showed distinct peaks associated with the stimulation. None of the participants showed any adverse effects from the sonication based on neuroimaging and neurological examinations. Retrospective numerical simulation of the acoustic profile showed the presence of individual variability in terms of the location and intensity of the acoustic focus. With exquisite spatial selectivity and capability for depth penetration, FUS may confer a unique utility in providing non-invasive stimulation of region-specific brain circuits for neuroscientific and therapeutic applications.
authors.affiliation: Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Wonhye
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Chul
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Yujin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: Yong An
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea.
authors.forename: In-Uk
authors.initials: IU
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-Hwan
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Incheon, Korea.|Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Seung-Schik
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yoo