ArticleBrain sciences2021
Effects of Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation on Trigeminal Blink Reflex Excitability.
Article in Brain sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Transcranial Pulse Stimulation of the Primary Motor Cortex on Motor Performance in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Crossover Pilot Study.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2025Trial
- Neuromodulation with Ultrasound: Hypotheses on the Directionality of Effects and Community Resource.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- The Role of Non-Invasive Brain Modulation in Identifying Disease Biomarkers for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Purposes in Parkinsonism.Brain sciences · 2024Review
- A review of functional neuromodulation in humans using low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound.Biomedical engineering letters · 2024Review
- Elucidation of the mechanism underlying impaired sensorimotor gating in patients with primary blepharospasm using prepulse inhibition.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
- Low-Intensity Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation: Mechanisms of Action and Rationale for Future Applications in Movement Disorders.Brain sciences · 2022Review
- Human Ultrasound Neuromodulation: State of the Art.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- 32 Element Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducer (PMUT) Phased Array for Neuromodulation.IEEE open journal of ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent evidence indicates that transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) modulates sensorimotor cortex excitability. However, no study has assessed possible TUS effects on the excitability of deeper brain areas, such as the brainstem. In this study, we investigated whether TUS delivered on the substantia nigra, superior colliculus, and nucleus raphe magnus modulates the excitability of trigeminal blink reflex, a reliable neurophysiological technique to assess brainstem functions in humans. The recovery cycle of the trigeminal blink reflex (interstimulus intervals of 250 and 500 ms) was tested before (T0), and 3 (T1) and 30 min (T2) after TUS. The effects of substantia nigra-TUS, superior colliculus-TUS, nucleus raphe magnus-TUS and sham-TUS were assessed in separate and randomized sessions. In the superior colliculus-TUS session, the conditioned R2 area increased at T1 compared with T0, while T2 and T0 values did not differ. Results were independent of the interstimulus intervals tested and were not related to trigeminal blink reflex baseline (T0) excitability. Conversely, the conditioned R2 area was comparable at T0, T1, and T2 in the nucleus raphe magnus-TUS and substantia nigra-TUS sessions. Our findings demonstrate that the excitability of brainstem circuits, as evaluated by testing the recovery cycle of the trigeminal blink reflex, can be increased by TUS. This result may reflect the modulation of inhibitory interneurons within the superior colliculus.
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Registered trials
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