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A research team at 好色先生TV has developed a new noninvasive brain stimulation technique, by showing how focused ultrasound affects the human brain. Using brainwave recordings from human participants, the team found that focused ultrasound can subtly influence brain activity without directly causing neurons to fire. The work clarifies conflicting results in the field and introduces a new approach to noninvasive brain stimulation.

Focused ultrasound has been studied for years, but its effects in humans are not well understood. One challenge is that the technology makes a quiet beeping sound that can trigger hearing pathways in the brain, making it hard to know whether changes are caused by the sound or by the ultrasound itself. Previous studies using MRI scans may also produce misleading signals.

To address these limitations, researchers conducted a resting-state study in 27 human participants using concurrent whole-brain EEG recordings. They compared low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) alone, a mild electrical brain stimulation called tDCS, and a new approach that combines the two, deemed transcranial electro-acoustic stimulation (tEAS). When used alone, neither ultrasound nor electrical stimulation caused clear, targeted brain responses. However, when combined, they produced strong, specific activity in the targeted area.

鈥淭his combination of ultrasound with electricity allowed us to see what ultrasound is really doing in the human brain,鈥� said Bin He, professor of biomedical engineering. 鈥淚t helps explain why earlier studies seemed to show different results.鈥�

He added, 鈥淯nderstanding that focused ultrasound can gently prime the brain opens the door to new treatments that are precise, noninvasive, and potentially safer for patients.鈥�

The team also created a companion computer model to explain their findings. It shows that small effects from ultrasound and mild electrical stimulation can add together to trigger a full response in neurons. This helps make sense of why past studies sometimes seemed inconsistent.

鈥淏y showing that focused ultrasound acts as a gentle modulator, rather than a direct stimulator, we laid the groundwork for a new brain stimulation method,鈥� explained He. 鈥淭his combined approach, called transcranial electro-acoustic stimulation, or tEAS, uses the precision of ultrasound while producing stronger, targeted brain responses, and allows us to see what ultrasound is really doing in the human cortex.鈥�

In the next phase, He and his team will build on the foundational understanding of focused ultrasound in the human brain established by this work to further integrate transcranial focused ultrasound with brain-computer interfaces, advancing human-machine interaction. They also plan to apply the novel transcranial electro-acoustic stimulation technique to the treatment of neurological disorders, including chronic pain and epilepsy.

This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the BRAIN Initiative of the National Institutes of Health, and a National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering training grant. First author Joshua Kosnoff, a BME Ph.D. student, was partially supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Other collaborators on the include , BME research scientist and now an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut; Colton Gonsisko, Joseph Zhang, and Yidan Ding, BME Ph.D. students; and Yisha Zhang, BME lab technician.

For media inquiries, please contact Sara Pecchia at pecchia@cmu.edu.