Focused ultrasound as emerging method of non-invasive neurotechnology

Sound Waves Can Heal Brain Dis­or­ders (Sci­en­tif­ic American):

“…Physi­cians are also con­sid­er­ing high-inten­si­ty focused ultra­sound as an alter­na­tive to brain surgery. Patients with move­ment dis­or­ders such as Parkin­son’s dis­ease and dys­to­nia are increas­ing­ly being treat­ed with implant­ed elec­trodes, which can inter­rupt prob­lem­at­ic brain activ­i­ty. A team at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia hopes to use focused ultra­sound to deliv­er ther­mal lesions deep into the brain with­out hav­ing patients go under the knife…The ben­e­fits of focused ultra­sound might extend well beyond restor­ing mobil­i­ty and deliv­er­ing drugs. Oth­er groups are explor­ing its use in treat­ing neu­ro­path­ic pain and obses­sive-com­pul­sive dis­or­der, too.”

Study: A Pilot Study of Focused Ultra­sound Thal­a­m­o­to­my for Essen­tial Tremor (The New Eng­land Jour­nal of Medicine)

• Back­ground: Recent advances have enabled deliv­ery of high-inten­si­ty focused ultra­sound through the intact human cra­ni­um with mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (MRI) guid­ance. This pre­lim­i­nary study inves­ti­gates the use of tran­scra­nial MRI-guid­ed focused ultra­sound thal­a­m­o­to­my for the treat­ment of essen­tial tremor.
  Con­clu­sions: In this pilot study, essen­tial tremor improved in 15 patients treat­ed with MRI-guid­ed focused ultra­sound thal­a­m­o­to­my. Large, ran­dom­ized, con­trolled tri­als will be required to assess the pro­ce­dure’s effi­ca­cy and safety.

To learn more:

• Good sur­vey of brain stim­u­la­tion meth­ods, val­ue and limitations
• Ses­sion What’s next: The future of non-inva­sive neu­rotech­nol­o­gy, at the upcom­ing 2014 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (Octo­ber 28–30th)