Journal article
Suppression of pathological oscillations with transcranial focused ultrasound in Parkinson's disease
- Abstract:
- Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) is an emerging method for non-invasive neuromodulation of deep brain structures. However, to date, there is no evidence that TUS can directly modulate disease-related pathological oscillations in the same direction as known therapies. Inspired by clinical deep brain stimulation, in this randomised controlled cross-over study we probed the effects of pallidal TUS pulsed at 130 Hz on subthalamic beta-band activity, a biomarker in Parkinson's Disease (PD) in four male participants with PD. Beta-band power reduced in the ipsilateral subthalamic nucleus (STN) by 10.34% (95% CI:3.81% to 16.87%, p < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted). Beta power reduction was correlated between the ipsilateral (R2 = 0.980, p < 0.05, FDR adjusted), but not contralateral, STN and primary motor cortex. Bradykinesia, as measured by change in reaction time, was also reduced by 17.70% (95% CI:8.95% to 26.41%, p < 0.05, FDR adjusted). In this proof of concept study, we demonstrate that TUS can suppress pathological oscillations, potentially opening the door for therapeutic TUS (NCT06932185).
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.5MB, Terms of use)
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(Preview, Supplementary materials, pdf, 1.1MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41467-026-70714-7
Authors
+ Royal Society
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/03wnrjx87
- Grant:
- IES\R3\213123
+ Rosetrees Trust
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/04e3zg361
- Grant:
- ID2021\100054
+ Medical Research Council
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/03x94j517
- Grant:
- MR/X006417/1
+ NIHR Oxford Musculoskeletal Biomedical Research Centre
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/00aps1a34
- Grant:
- NIHR203316
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Communications More from this journal
- Volume:
- 17
- Article number:
- 4471
- Place of publication:
- England
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-25
- Acceptance date:
- 2026-03-04
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
2041-1723
- Pmid:
-
41876482
- Language:
-
English
- Pubs id:
-
2395340
- Local pid:
-
pubs:2395340
- Source identifiers:
-
W7140170497
- Deposit date:
-
2026-03-31
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Eraifej et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2026
- Rights statement:
- ©The Author(s) 2026. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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