Sci Adv: Ultrasound can treat brain disorders

May 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/--- About one in eight people over the age of 12 takes antidepressants to treat depression and anxiety, and one in four of them takes antidepressants for 10 years or more, according to a 2017 study by the National Center for National StatisticsFrom 1999 to 2014, the use of antidepressants increased by 65%Jan Kubanek, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Utah,, found that the treatment of brain diseases may not require drugs or invasive surgery at all, just sound wavesin a new paper published Wednesday, May 20, in a new paper published in the journal Science Advance,(image source:), Kubanek describes a procedure in which high-frequency (ultrasonic) sound waves can be transmitted to a patient's brain to change their stateThis is a non-invasive treatment that does not involve drugs or surgery and has the unique potential to treat mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety, as well as neurological disorders such as chronic pain and epilepsy"Brain diseases should be treated in a targeted, personalized manner, rather than providing patients with a variety of medications," saidKubanekBut to do this, we need a tool that provides noninvasive, precise and personalized treatments to address the root causes of everyone's problemsSo far, it's just a dream"the idea of using ultrasound for this precise treatmentinvolves using an ultrasonic transducer to inject high-frequency pulses into the brain, similar to those used for ultrasonic scanning rodsSound pulses target neural circuits in the brain and cause the neuronal membranes to oscillate, activating neurons and influencing the behavior of those neurons that controlThe procedure does not cause pain or discomfort and does not involve surgery"In this way, we can change the activity of neurons and the connectivity between the stimulated neurons and their neighbors, which may restore the faulty neural circuits to normal," said Kubanek, a team transmitted ultrasound to the monkey's brain, using the correct frequency and targeting the right neurons, the researchers were able to control whether the object sits to look right or left During this process, the animals did not feel the abnormal effects of the ultrasound Kubanek said the experiment provides an easy way to measure the strength of the ultrasound effect Ultrasound can systematically treat patients until they can significantly improve their symptoms (Bio Valley Bioon.com) Source: Researchers Discovers Waves saposta saposted a new for the new treatments for brain disorders
original origin: J Kubanek at University of Utah in Salt City, UT el al., "Remote, brain-specific control of the with-the-
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DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz4193 , advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/21/eaaz4193