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

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 surroundi

SUBMITTER: Yaakub SN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12340796 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature