ArticleBlood2024
Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound suppresses pain by modulating pain-processing brain circuits.
Article in Blood, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Neuromodulation effects of low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound in human, a systematic review focusing on motor and sensory functions.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2025Pooled it
- The efficacy and mechanisms of low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation on pain: a systematic review of human and animal studies.The journal of headache and pain · 2025Pooled it
- Low-intensity focused ultrasound of the spine in the treatment of chronic pain and movement disorder: a scoping review.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2025Pooled it
- Future Prospects of Ultrasound: Role of Low-Intensity Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation in the Treatment of Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders.European journal of neurology · 2026Review
- Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis of osteoarthritis: pathway regulation, cell interaction networks, and therapeutic translation.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- High pressure transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation induces parameter-dependent cell-type specific effects.Microsystems & nanoengineering · 2026Review
- Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates spiking, LFP, and BOLD activity in the primate thalamus.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Article
- TRPC4/TRPC5 are critical for neuronal modulation by transcranial focused ultrasound in retrosplenial cortex in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Medial prefrontal cortex-targeted low-intensity focused ultrasound alleviates migraine-related allodynia and affective symptoms via modulating glutamate/GABA balance in mice.The journal of headache and pain · 2026Article
- Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound engages parvalbumin-positive GABAergic interneurons in a humanized mouse model of chronic pain: from electrophysiology to cellular investigation.Journal of neural engineering · 2026Article
- LIFUS-driven engineered bacteria reprogram immunosuppressive niches via mechano-NOTCH signaling.Cell reports. Medicine · 2026Article
- Molecular and biophysical characterization of cultured DRG neurons in response to focused ultrasound.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Targeting the Medial Prefrontal Cortex with Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Alleviates Adolescent Sleep-Deprivation-Induced Persistent Postsurgical Pain in Adulthood.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Non-invasive brain stimulation for chronic low back pain: current techniques and future perspectives.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Article
- Ultrasound neuromodulation in brain disorders: from mechanotransduction mechanisms to clinical translation.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Review
- Therapeutic modulation of empathy: pharmacological, neurostimulation, and behavioral approaches.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation Targeting White Matter Inhibits Seizures in a Rat Model of Epilepsy.IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · 2026Article
- Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Enhances the Discriminative Power of Targeted Voluntary Motor Signals in Humans.IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society · 2026Article
- Parameter-Determined Effects: Advances in Transcranial Focused Ultrasound for Modulating Neural Excitation and Inhibition.Bioengineering (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
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Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
abstractThere is an urgent and unmet clinical need to develop nonpharmacological interventions for chronic pain management because of the critical side effects of opioids. Low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) is an emerging noninvasive neuromodulation technology with high spatial specificity and deep brain penetration. Here, we developed a tightly focused 128-element ultrasound transducer to specifically target small mouse brains using dynamic focus steering. We demonstrate that tFUS stimulation at pain-processing brain circuits can significantly alter pain-associated behaviors in mouse models in vivo. Our findings indicate that a single-session focused ultrasound stimulation to the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) significantly attenuates heat pain sensitivity in wild-type mice and modulates heat and mechanical hyperalgesia in a humanized mouse model of chronic pain in sickle cell disease. Results further revealed a sustained behavioral change associated with heat hypersensitivity by targeting deeper cortical structures (eg, insula) and multisession focused ultrasound stimulation to S1 and insula. Analyses of brain electrical rhythms through electroencephalography demonstrated a significant change in noxious heat hypersensitivity-related and chronic hyperalgesia-associated neural signals after focused ultrasound treatment. Validation of efficacy was carried out through control experiments, tuning ultrasound parameters, adjusting interexperiment intervals, and investigating effects on age, sex, and genotype in a head-fixed awake model. Importantly, tFUS was found to be safe, causing no adverse effects on motor function or the brain's neuropathology. In conclusion, the validated proof-of-principle experimental evidence demonstrates the translational potential of novel focused ultrasound neuromodulation for next-generation pain treatment without adverse effects.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.