"Science Advances" ultrasound treatment of "addiction problems"

Imagine passing an exam and you think your success depends on the number of socks you wear or the number of biscuits you eat, not the study time you put in

This is a problem of "credit distribution", that is, a person or animal attributes the wrong result to an event, which exists in various mental illnesses, such as addiction or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Now, a new study in macaques reveals which parts of the brain support the credit allocation process, and how low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) regulates brain activity and behavior related to these credit allocation processes

Although it is currently being developed in an animal model, this research route and the use of TUS may one day be applied to clinical research to resolve the observed mental conditions of unsuitability decisions

The study, led by the University of Plymouth and published in the journal Science Advances, shows that in the prefrontal area of ​​the brain that supports adaptive behavior, activities related to credit allocation can be safely and quickly disrupted by TUS

After stimulating this brain area, the animals in the study became more exploratory when making decisions

Research also shows that if another brain area (also part of the prefrontal cortex) is stimulated, the process remains intact; it is the first to show how task-related brain modulation is specific to the area where the stimulus mediates a specific cognitive process

The lead author, Dr.

"The second challenge is that if you disrupt or regulate one part, then it may affect several other parts, so we need to understand how brain areas work together, and how they affect each other if one area is stimulated or destroyed

"The really interesting findings in this research are not only the discovery of where certain decision-making activities occur, but also how neuromodulation changes these behaviors and related behaviors

This work is used as a proof of concept for ongoing research at the New Brain Research and Imaging Center (BRIC) of the University of Plymouth, where Dr.

Ultrasound modulation of macaque prefrontal cortex credit assignment–related activity and behaviour selectively alters