ArticleBrain stimulation
Examination of the interaction of parameters for low-intensity focused ultrasound of the human motor cortex.
Article in Brain stimulation. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline 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
- Effects of online motor cortex transcranial ultrasound stimulation on interhemispheric inhibition.The Journal of physiology · 2026Article
- TRPC4/TRPC5 are critical for neuronal modulation by transcranial focused ultrasound in retrosplenial cortex in male mice.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound neuromodulation promotes neuronal regeneration: A new hope for noninvasive treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.Neural regeneration research · 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 Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation in Psychiatric Disorders: Mechanisms, Models, and Missing Links.Biological psychiatry · 2026Review
- Modulation of Posterior Insula Selectively Enhances Nociceptive Sensory Gating in Humans.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 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
- Sonogenetics for precision medicine: from molecular toolkit to clinical translation.Theranostics · 2026Review
- Modulation of posterior insula selectively enhances nociceptive sensory gating in healthy humans.Neurobiology of pain (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLow-intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU) is a promising form of non-invasive neuromodulation characterized by a rich parameter space that includes intensity, duration, duty cycle and pulsing strategy. The effect and interaction of these parameters to affect human brain activity is poorly understood. A better understanding of how parameters interact is critical to advance LIFU as a potential therapeutic. OBJECTIVE/HYPOTHESIS: To determine how intensity, duration, and duty cycle interact to produce neuromodulation effects in the human motor cortex. Further, this study assesses the effect of pulsing versus continuous ultrasound. We hypothesize that higher duty cycles will confer excitation. Increasing intensity or duration will increase the magnitude of effect. Pulsing LIFU will not be more effective than continuous wave ultrasound.
methodsN = 18 healthy human volunteers underwent 20 different parameter combinations that included a fully parametrized set of two intensities (I
resultsThere was no evidence of excitation from any parameter combination. 3 of the 24 parameter sets resulted in significant inhibition. The parameter set that resulted in the greatest inhibition (∼30 %) was an intensity of 6W/cm
conclusionsLIFU to M1 in humans, in the range employed, either conferred inhibition or had no effect. Significant excitation was not observed. In general, lower intensity looks to be more efficacious for inhibition that depends on duration. In addition, pulsed ultrasound looks to be more effective for inhibition as compared to continuous wave after controlling for total energy delivered. Non-specific auditory effects may contribute to these results.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.