Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Enhances Sensory Discrimination Capability through Somatosensory Cortical Excitation

Liu, Chang; Yu, Kai; Niu, Xiaodan; He, Bin

doi:10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2021.01.025

Cited by 27 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Since a decade ago, many researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) in the central nervous system of rodent models [1e6], sheep models [7], primate models [8e10] and human subjects [11e15]. The capabilities of tFUS as a neuromodulation technique is coming into light, such as the ability to reliably induce time-locked neuronal activity in vitro [16,17], and in rodents [5,18], or the ability to safely modulate evoked potentials in humans [11,13,14,19], etc. As the field advances towards a better understanding of the mechanisms of tFUS and its translatability to clinical utility [5], a natural subsequent investigation is the ability of tFUS to effectively deliver sustained therapeutic effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial focused ultrasound induces sustained synaptic plasticity in rat hippocampus

Niu

2022

Brain Stimulation

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Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) neuromodulation provides a promising emerging non-invasive therapy for the treatment of neurological disorders. Many studies have demonstrated the ability of tFUS to elicit transient changes in neural responses. However, the ability of tFUS to induce sustained changes need to be carefully examined. In this study, we use the long-term potentiation/long term depression (LTP/LTD) model in the rat hippocampus, the medial perforant path (mPP) to dentate gyrus (DG) pathway, to explore whether tFUS is capable of encoding frequency specific information to induce plasticity. Single-element focused transducers were used for tFUS stimulation with ultrasound fundamental frequency of 0.5 MHz and nominal focal distance of 38 mm tFUS stimulation is directed to mPP. Measurement of synaptic connectivity is achieved through the slope of field excitatory post synaptic potentials (fEPSPs), which are elicited using bipolar electrical stimulation electrodes and recorded at DG using extracellular electrodes to quantify degree of plasticity. We applied pulsed tFUS stimulation with total duration of 5 min, with 5 levels of pulse repetition frequencies each administered at 50 Hz sonication frequency at the mPP. Baseline fEPSP is recorded 10 min prior, and 30þ minutes after tFUS administration. In N ¼ 16 adult wildtype rats, we observed sustained depression of fEPSP slope after 5 min of tFUS focused at the presynaptic field mPP. Across all PRFs, no significant difference in maximum fEPSP slope change was observed, average tFUS induced depression level was observed at 19.6%. When compared to low frequency electrical stimulation (LFS) of 1 Hz delivered to the mPP, the sustained changes induced by tFUS stimulation show no statistical difference to LFS for up to 24 min after tFUS stimulation. When both the maximum depression effects and the duration of sustained effects are both taken into account, PRF 3 kHz can induce significantly larger effects than other PRFs tested. tFUS stimulation is measured with a spatial-peak pressure amplitude of 99 kPa, translating to an estimation of 0.43 C temperature increase when assuming no loss of heat. The results suggest the ability of tFUS to encode sustained changes in synaptic connectivity through mechanism which are unlikely to involve thermal changes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial focused ultrasound induces sustained synaptic plasticity in rat hippocampus

Niu

2022

Brain Stimulation

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“…Single-element TUS pulses could effectively activate local brain regions and produce relevant modulation on the behaviors ( Ai et al, 2016 , 2018 ). For example, TUS over frontal eye fields modulated the choice behavior in the macaque monkey ( Kubanek et al., 2020 ), TUS over visual cortex induced phosphene phenomenon ( Lee et al., 2016b ), TUS over somatosensory cortex elicited tactile sensations in the hands and improved sensory discrimination capability ( Lee et al., 2015 ; Legon et al., 2014 ; Liu et al., 2021 ), TUS over right anterior insula/frontal operculum and dorsal ACC reduced parasympathetic fear responses and emotional distraction interference on performance ( Fini and Tyler, 2020a , 2020b ), and TUS over primary motor cortex altered motor cortical excitability, which was reflected by motor evoked potential (MEP) measurement ( Fomenko et al., 2020 ; Gibson et al., 2018 ; Legon et al., 2018b ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial ultrasound stimulation of the human motor cortex

Zhang

Ren

et al. 2021

iScience

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Summary It has been 40 years since the report of long-term synaptic plasticity on the rodent brain. Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) shows advantages in spatial resolution and penetration depth when compared with electrical or magnetic stimulation. The repetitive TUS (rTUS) can induce cortical excitability alteration on animals, and persistent aftereffects were observed. However, the effects of rTUS on synaptic plasticity in humans remain unelucidated. In the current study, we applied a 15-min rTUS protocol to stimulate left primary motor cortex (l-M1) in 24 male healthy participants. The single-pulsed transcranial magnetic stimulation-evoked motor evoked potential and Stop-signal task was applied to measure the rTUS aftereffects. Here, we report that conditioning the human motor cortex using rTUS may produce long-lasting and statistically significant effects on motor cortex excitability as well as motor behavior, without harmful side effects observed. These findings suggest a considerable potential of rTUS in cortical plasticity modulation and clinical intervention for impulsivity-related disorders.

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“…FUS stimulation modulates the neural response induced by behavioral tasks and TMS-induced MEPs. Liu et al (2021) evaluated the interference of tFUS stimulation at S1 on the performances in a mechanical vibration frequency discrimination task in a group of healthy human participants. The behavioral results indicated that low-intensity tFUS stimulation improved vibration frequency discrimination capability.…”

Section: Excitatory Modulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The behavioral results indicated that low-intensity tFUS stimulation improved vibration frequency discrimination capability. EEG and electrophysiological source imaging (ESI) results revealed that tFUS improved sensory discrimination capability through exciting the targeted sensory cortex ( Liu et al, 2021 ). The study by Gibson et al (2018) used a diagnostic imaging ultrasound system to stimulate the motor cortex.…”

Section: Excitatory Modulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: A Review of the Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects on Brain Activity in Human and Animals

Zhang

Pan

Wang

et al. 2021

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Non-invasive neuromodulation technology is important for the treatment of brain diseases. The effects of focused ultrasound on neuronal activity have been investigated since the 1920s. Low intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) can exert non-destructive mechanical pressure effects on cellular membranes and ion channels and has been shown to modulate the activity of peripheral nerves, spinal reflexes, the cortex, and even deep brain nuclei, such as the thalamus. It has obvious advantages in terms of security and spatial selectivity. This technology is considered to have broad application prospects in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders and neuropsychiatric disorders. This review synthesizes animal and human research outcomes and offers an integrated description of the excitatory and inhibitory effects of tFUS in varying experimental and disease conditions.

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Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Enhances Sensory Discrimination Capability through Somatosensory Cortical Excitation

Cited by 27 publications

References 37 publications

Transcranial focused ultrasound induces sustained synaptic plasticity in rat hippocampus

Transcranial focused ultrasound induces sustained synaptic plasticity in rat hippocampus

Transcranial ultrasound stimulation of the human motor cortex

Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: A Review of the Excitatory and Inhibitory Effects on Brain Activity in Human and Animals

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