Systematic examination of low-intensity ultrasound parameters on human motor cortex excitability and behavior.
other · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33236981.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.54497 and PMC identifier 7728443.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Low-intensity transcranial ultrasound (TUS) can non-invasively modulate human neural activity. We investigated how different fundamental sonication parameters influence the effects of TUS on the motor cortex (M1) of 16 healthy subjects by probing cortico-cortical excitability and behavior. A low-intensity 500 kHz TUS transducer was coupled to a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) coil. TMS was delivered 10 ms before the end of TUS to the left M1 hotspot of the first dorsal interosseous muscle. Varying acoustic parameters (pulse repetition frequency, duty cycle, and sonication duration) on motor-evoked potential amplitude were examined. Paired-pulse measures of cortical inhibition and facilitation, and performance on a visuomotor task was also assessed. TUS safely suppressed TMS-elicited motor cortical activity, with longer sonication durations and shorter duty cycles when delivered in a blocked paradigm. TUS increased GABA<sub>A</sub>-mediated short-interval intracortical inhibition and decreased reaction time on visuomotor task but not when controlled with TUS at near-somatosensory threshold intensity.
Medical subject headings
- Evoked Potentials, Motor
- Motor Cortex
- Motor Skills
- Muscle Contraction
- Muscle, Skeletal
- Neural Inhibition
- Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
- Ultrasonic Waves