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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0eLife

Ultrasound neuromodulation hypotheses on the directionality of effects and community resource

  • Hugo Caffaratti1
  • Ben Slater2
  • Nour Shaheen1
  • Ariane E Rhone1
  • Ryan Calmus1,2
  • Michael Kritikos1
  • Sukhbinder Kumar1
  • Brian Dlouhy1
  • Hiroyuki Oya1
  • Timothy D Griffiths1,2
  • Aaron Boes3
  • Nicholas Trapp3
6 more authors
  • Marcus Kaiser4,5
  • Jerome Sallet6,7
  • Matthew I Banks8
  • Matthew A Howard III1
  • Mario Zanaty1
  • Chris Petkov1,2,9
9 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Neurosurgery, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, United States
  2. 2Biosciences Institute, Newcastle University Medical School, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
  3. 3Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
  4. 4NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom
  5. 5Rui Jin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
  6. 6Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, INSERM U1208, University of Lyon, Lyon, France
  7. 7Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  8. 8Department of Anesthesiology, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, United States
  9. 9Iowa Neuroscience Institute, University of Iowa, Iowa City, United States
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Abstract

Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising non-invasive technique for brain stimulation and focal neuromodulation. Research with humans and animal models has raised the possibility that TUS can be biased towards enhancing or suppressing neural function. Here, we first collate a set of hypotheses on the directionality of TUS effects and conduct an initial meta-analysis on available healthy human participant TUS studies reporting stimulation parameters and outcomes (n=47 studies, 52 experiments). In initial exploratory analyses with univariate tests, we find that parameters, such as the intensity and continuity of stimulation (duty cycle, DC) show statistical trends towards likely TUS neural enhancement or suppression of function. Machine-learning analyses were limited by the currently small sample size. Given that human TUS sample sizes are expected to increase, predictability on the directionality of TUS effects could improve if a database is available. Therefore, we establish an inTUS database and resource for the systematic reporting of TUS parameters and outcomes to assist in greater precision in TUS use for brain stimulation and neuromodulation. The paper concludes with a selective review of human clinical TUS studies illustrating how hypotheses on the directionality of TUS effects could be developed for empirical testing in the intended clinical application, not limited to the examples provided.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{caffaratti2026ultrasound,
  title = {{Ultrasound neuromodulation hypotheses on the directionality of effects and community resource}},
  author = {Hugo Caffaratti and Ben Slater and Nour Shaheen and Ariane E Rhone and Ryan Calmus and Michael Kritikos and Sukhbinder Kumar and Brian Dlouhy and Hiroyuki Oya and Timothy D Griffiths and Aaron Boes and Nicholas Trapp and Marcus Kaiser and Jerome Sallet and Matthew I Banks and Matthew A Howard III and Mario Zanaty and Chris Petkov},
  journal = {eLife},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.7554/elife.100827},
  url = {https://elifesciences.org/articles/100827},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Ultrasound neuromodulation hypotheses on the directionality of effects and community resource
AU  - Hugo Caffaratti
AU  - Ben Slater
AU  - Nour Shaheen
AU  - Ariane E Rhone
AU  - Ryan Calmus
AU  - Michael Kritikos
AU  - Sukhbinder Kumar
AU  - Brian Dlouhy
AU  - Hiroyuki Oya
AU  - Timothy D Griffiths
AU  - Aaron Boes
AU  - Nicholas Trapp
AU  - Marcus Kaiser
AU  - Jerome Sallet
AU  - Matthew I Banks
AU  - Matthew A Howard III
AU  - Mario Zanaty
AU  - Chris Petkov
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
JO  - eLife
DO  - 10.7554/elife.100827
UR  - https://elifesciences.org/articles/100827
AB  - Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is a promising non-invasive technique for brain stimulation and focal neuromodulation. Research with humans and animal models has raised the possibility that TUS can be biased towards enhancing or suppressing neural function. Here, we first collate a set of hypotheses on the directionality of TUS effects and conduct an initial meta-analysis on available healthy human participant TUS studies reporting stimulation parameters and outcomes (n=47 studies, 52 experiments). In initial exploratory analyses with univariate tests, we find that parameters, such as the intensity and continuity of stimulation (duty cycle, DC) show statistical trends towards likely TUS neural enhancement or suppression of function. Machine-learning analyses were limited by the currently small sample size. Given that human TUS sample sizes are expected to increase, predictability on the directionality of TUS effects could improve if a database is available. Therefore, we establish an inTUS database and resource for the systematic reporting of TUS parameters and outcomes to assist in greater precision in TUS use for brain stimulation and neuromodulation. The paper concludes with a selective review of human clinical TUS studies illustrating how hypotheses on the directionality of TUS effects could be developed for empirical testing in the intended clinical application, not limited to the examples provided.
SN  - 2050-084X
ER  -