ArticleFrontiers in aging neuroscience2026
Home-administered unfocused transcranial ultrasound in subjective cognitive decline and dementia: an open-label, uncontrolled feasibility pilot study.
Article in Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Memory and cognitive impairments remain disabling, with few effective treatments. Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound (TUS) is a non-invasive neuromodulation approach with a favorable safety profile and preliminary evidence of cognitive benefit, with one hypothesized but unproven mechanism involving microtubule resonance and reassembly. Objectives: This open-label pilot study evaluated the safety and preliminary efficacy of the US Pro2000 unfocused ultrasound device in adults with memory or cognitive difficulties, a sample spanning subjective cognitive decline among self-administering participants to diagnosed dementia among caregiver-rated recipients, and described self-reported symptom trajectories. Methods: In a within-participant design, adults with self-reported cognitive impairment, or their caregivers, applied the device at the right temporal window for 5 min three times daily (target 15 min/day), in cycles of 3 weeks on and 1 week off. Outcomes (GAD-7, CESD-5, Inoue battery, and caregiver-rated MDS 3.0) and adverse events were collected online. Mixed-effects models with age and device-use covariates assessed change over time, with False Discovery Rate correction within aim. Results: Twenty-seven participants enrolled and 26 initiated treatment. Across 2,174 daily assessments, no serious or unanticipated adverse events occurred; only headache (15.4%) and transient jaw clenching (3.8%) were possibly related, and none caused discontinuation. Among self-administered participants, depression (CESD-5) declined significantly ( Conclusion: Home-based self-administered low-intensity TUS was well tolerated, with only mild transient events, although adverse-event ascertainment relied on unblinded self-report and relatedness judgments were made by unblinded investigators. Efficacy signals were confined to self-report, while objective cognition and caregiver ratings were unchanged. The uncontrolled design, small subgroups, and reliance on self-report preclude causal inference. These findings support the safety and feasibility of TUS and justify an adequately powered, double-blind, sham-controlled trial.
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.