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Publications

Journal Article Preprint Epublish 14 citations

PubMed: 40799556 DOI: 10.1101/2024.07.25.605068

Non-invasive Ultrasonic Neuromodulation of the Human Nucleus Accumbens Impacts Reward Sensitivity.

bioRxiv

Authors: Siti N Yaakub, John Eraifej, Nadège Bault, Mathilde Lojkiewiez, Elouan Bellec, Jamie Roberts, Noah S Philip, Amir Puyan Divanbeighi Zand, Alexander L Green, Matthew F S Rushworth, Elsa F Fouragnan

Affiliations

  • School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
  • Brain Research and Imaging Centre, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
  • Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
  • Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
  • Department of Neurosurgery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK.
  • School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom. Brain Research and Imaging Centre, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
  • Department of Clinical Measurement and Innovation, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, Plymouth, UK.
  • Department of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
  • Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology, VA Providence Healthcare System, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
  • Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
  • Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.

Abstract

Precisely neuromodulating deep brain regions could bring transformative advancements in both neuroscience and treatment. We demonstrate that non-invasive transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) can selectively modulate deep brain activity and affect learning and decision making, comparable to deep brain stimulation (DBS). We tested whether TUS could causally influence neural and behavioural responses by targeting the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) using a reinforcement learning task. Twenty-six healthy adults completed a within-subject TUS-fMRI experiment with three conditions: TUS to the NAcc, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), or Sham. After TUS, participants performed a probabilistic learning task during fMRI. TUS-NAcc altered BOLD responses to reward signals in the NAcc and surrounding areas. It also affected reward-related features, including win-stay strategy use, learning rate following rewards and learning curves. DBS-NAcc perturbed the same features, confirming target engagement. These findings establish TUS as a viable approach for non-invasive deep-brain neuromodulation.

MeSH

Nucleus Accumbens, Brain, Reward, Ultrasonics, Learning