A rapid beam simulation framework for transcranial focused ultrasound

Leung, Steven A.; Webb, Taylor D.; Bitton, Rachelle; Ghanouni, Pejman; Pauly, Kim Butts

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43775-6

Cited by 47 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 40 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…Increasing the frequency thus improves the precision of the stimulation but, unfortunately, it also induces a higher thermal rise due to increased tissue absorption ( Constans et al, 2018 ). Furthermore, aberrations induced by the skull increase with frequency ( Maimbourg et al, 2018b ; Leung et al, 2019 ). Therefore, targeting brain regions non-invasively is easier with low frequency ultrasound ( Yin and Hynynen, 2005 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronavigated Repetitive Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation Induces Long-Lasting and Reversible Effects on Oculomotor Performance in Non-human Primates

et al. 2020

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Since the late 2010s, Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (TUS) has been used experimentally to carryout safe, non-invasive stimulation of the brain with better spatial resolution than Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). This innovative stimulation method has emerged as a novel and valuable device for studying brain function in humans and animals. In particular, single pulses of TUS directed to oculomotor regions have been shown to modulate visuomotor behavior of non-human primates during 100 ms ultrasound pulses. In the present study, a sustained effect was induced by applying 20-s trains of neuronavigated repetitive Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation (rTUS) to oculomotor regions of the frontal cortex in three non-human primates performing an antisaccade task. With the help of MRI imaging and a frame-less stereotactic neuronavigation system (SNS), we were able to demonstrate that neuronavigated TUS (outside of the MRI scanner) is an efficient tool to carry out neuromodulation procedures in non-human primates. We found that, following neuronavigated rTUS, saccades were significantly modified, resulting in shorter latencies compared to no-rTUS trials. This behavioral modulation was maintained for up to 20 min. Oculomotor behavior returned to baseline after 18-31 min and could not be significantly distinguished from the no-rTUS condition. This study is the first to show that neuronavigated rTUS can have a persistent effect on monkey behavior with a quantified return-time to baseline. The specificity of the effects could not be explained by auditory confounds.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuronavigated Repetitive Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation Induces Long-Lasting and Reversible Effects on Oculomotor Performance in Non-human Primates

et al. 2020

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“…acoustic stars [16], [17]) to non-invasive based on numerical simulations of the ultrasonic propagation through the skull bone with either ray-tracing [10], [18]- [20] angular spectrum [21]- [24], finite difference [25]- [32] or pseudo-spectral schemes [33]- [37]; or a combination of numerical phase estimation adjusted with echoes from injected micro-bubbles [38]. For all numerical methods, the acoustic properties such as density, speed of sound and attenuation are derived from CT or MR imaging of the skull bone [25], [39]- [42].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison Between Ray-Tracing and Full-Wave Simulation for Transcranial Ultrasound Focusing on a Clinical System Using the Transfer Matrix Formalism

Bancel

Houdouin²,

Annic³

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelect., Freq. Contr.

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Only one High Intensity Focused Ultrasound device has been clinically approved for transcranial brain surgery at the time of writing. The device operates within 650 kHz and 720 kHz and corrects the phase distortions induced by the skull of each patient using a multi-element phased array. Phase correction is estimated adaptively using a proprietary algorithm based on computed-tomography (CT) images of the patient's skull. In this paper, we assess the performance of the phase correction computed by the clinical device and compare it to (i) the correction obtained with a previously validated full-wave simulation algorithm using an open-source pseudo-spectral toolbox and (ii) a hydrophone-based correction performed invasively to measure the aberrations induced by the skull at 650 kHz. For the full-wave simulation, three different mappings between CT Hounsfield units and the longitudinal speed of sound inside the skull were tested. All methods are compared with the exact same setup thanks to transfer matrices acquired with the clinical system for N=5 skulls and T=2 different targets for each skull. We show that the clinical ray-tracing software and the full-wave simulation restore respectively 84±5% and 86±5% of the pressure obtained with hydrophone-based correction for targets located in central brain regions. On the second target (off-center), we also report that the performance of both algorithms degrades when the average incident angles of the acoustic beam at the skull surface increases. When incident angles are higher than 20°, the restored pressure drops below 75% of the pressure restored with hydrophone-based correction.

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“…This information is currently incomplete. Existing studies have provided insights into inter-subject variability of acoustic properties [29,[37][38][39][40], estimates of average attenuation and phase distortions [29,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46], as well as approaches on how these aberrations may be compensated for [4,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53]. However, acoustic measurements have only been provided for discrete sets of chosen samples or skull flaps [29,[37][38][39][40][41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic properties across the human skull

Riis

Webb

Kubanek

2021

Preprint

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Transcranial ultrasound is emerging as a noninvasive tool for targeted treatments of brain disorders. Transcranial ultrasound has been used for remotely mediated surgeries, transient opening of the blood-brain barrier, local drug delivery, and neuromodulation. However, all applications have been limited by the severe attenuation and phase distortion of ultrasound by the skull. Here, we characterized the dependence of the aberrations on specific anatomical segments of the skull. In particular, we measured ultrasound propagation properties throughout the perimeter of intact human skulls at 500 kHz. We found that the parietal bone provides substantially higher transmission (average pressure transmission 31±7%) and smaller phase distortion (242±44 degrees) than frontal (13±2%, 425±47 degrees) and occipital bone regions (16±4%, 416±35 degrees). In addition, we found that across skull regions, transmission strongly anti-correlated (R = −0.79) and phase distortion correlated (R = 0.85) with skull thickness. This information guides the design, positioning, and skull correction functionality of next-generation devices for effective, safe, and reproducible transcranial focused ultrasound therapies.

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A rapid beam simulation framework for transcranial focused ultrasound

Cited by 47 publications

References 40 publications

Neuronavigated Repetitive Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation Induces Long-Lasting and Reversible Effects on Oculomotor Performance in Non-human Primates

Neuronavigated Repetitive Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation Induces Long-Lasting and Reversible Effects on Oculomotor Performance in Non-human Primates

Comparison Between Ray-Tracing and Full-Wave Simulation for Transcranial Ultrasound Focusing on a Clinical System Using the Transfer Matrix Formalism

Acoustic properties across the human skull

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