Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41395365›Full record

ArticleImaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)2025

A double-blind replication attempt of offline 5Hz-rTUS-induced corticospinal excitability.

Po-Yu Fong, Benjamin R Kop, Carys Evans, Vidya Gani Wijaya, Yongling Lin, Drew Cappotto, Jenny S A Lee, Anna Latorre, Joy Song, Bradley Treeby and 4 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Focused Ultrasound for the Treatment of Circuit and Molecular Pathology in Parkinson's Disease.Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society · 2026
    Review
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

14 authors.

Po-Yu FongDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6229-1198
Benjamin R KopDonders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Carys EvansDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Vidya Gani WijayaDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Yongling LinDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Drew CappottoEar Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Jenny S A LeeDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Anna LatorreDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Joy SongDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Bradley TreebyBiomedical Ultrasound Group, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Eleanor MartinBiomedical Ultrasound Group, Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
John RothwellDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
Lennart VerhagenDonders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Sven BestmannDepartment of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising new form of non-invasive neuromodulation. As a nascent technique, replication of its effects on brain function is important. Of particular interest is offline 5 Hz repetitive TUS (5 Hz-rTUS), originally reported by Zeng et al. (2022) to elicit lasting corticospinal excitability increases, with large effect sizes. Here, we conducted a pre-registered (https://osf.io/p5n4q) replication of this protocol that benefited from three additional features: double-blind application of TUS, neuronavigation for consistent TMS positioning, and individualised 3D acoustic simulations to assess M1 target exposure to TUS. Changes in resting motor thresholds (rMT), motor-evoked potential (MEP) amplitude, short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI), and intracortical facilitation (ICF) in response to TUS (5 Hz-rTUS vs. sham) were measured in the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI), abductor digiti minimi (ADM), and abductor pollicis brevis (APB) muscles. Transducer location was determined by the TMS-hotspot for motor representations of the right FDI, as in the original work. No significant effects of 5 Hz-TUS (vs. sham) were observed. Post-hoc simulations showed considerable variability of the acoustic focus, which was outside the anatomical M1-hand area in 67% of participants-in line with the known poor correspondence of TMS-hotspot location and M1-hand area. Our results indicate that the effect sizes of the neuromodulatory effects of 5 Hz-rTUS on M1 may be more variable than previously appreciated. We suggest that double-blinding, neuronavigated TMS, individualised acoustic simulations for TUS targeting and pre-registration will aid reproducibility across studies.

Indexed as

corticospinal excitabilityneuromodulationneuronavigationtranscranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS)

Identifiers

PMID41395365
PMCPMC12696668

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.