Ultrasound Brain Scan: New Helmet Technology
- A groundbreaking new device - an ultrasound helmet - is poised to revolutionize the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders by offering a non-invasive option to deep brain...
- Senior author Bradley Treeby, a biomedical engineer at UCL, highlights the importance of this advancement: "This advance opens up opportunities for both neuroscience research and clinical treatment.
- The technology builds upon existing techniques like transcranial ultrasound stimulation and MRI-guided focused ultrasound, but overcomes their limitations.Traditional methods suffer from low focal precision or require invasive skull...
Ultrasound helmet Offers Non-Invasive Deep brain Stimulation with Unprecedented Precision
A groundbreaking new device – an ultrasound helmet – is poised to revolutionize the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders by offering a non-invasive option to deep brain stimulation currently requiring surgery. Developed by researchers at University College london (UCL) and the University of Oxford,the helmet utilizes focused ultrasound to modulate deep-brain circuits with remarkable accuracy.
Senior author Bradley Treeby, a biomedical engineer at UCL, highlights the importance of this advancement: “This advance opens up opportunities for both neuroscience research and clinical treatment. For the first time, scientists can non-invasively study causal relationships in deep-brain circuits that were previously only accessible thru surgery.”
The technology builds upon existing techniques like transcranial ultrasound stimulation and MRI-guided focused ultrasound, but overcomes their limitations.Traditional methods suffer from low focal precision or require invasive skull screws for stabilization. This new helmet, however, can target areas 1,000 times smaller than conventional ultrasound devices and 30 times smaller than othre deep-brain targeting technologies.
This precision is achieved through an array of 256 elements embedded within the helmet, which emit focused ultrasound beams to either increase or decrease neuronal activity in specific brain regions. A soft plastic face mask further stabilizes the head,enhancing beam accuracy.
Initial testing with seven human volunteers demonstrated the helmet’s capabilities by successfully targeting the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), a region of the thalamus crucial for visual processing. During experiments where subjects viewed a flashing checkerboard, researchers were able to modulate activity in the LGN using the ultrasound beams. Functional MRI scans confirmed the targeted stimulation.
The potential clinical applications are vast, offering hope for improved treatments for conditions like Parkinson’s disease, depression, and essential tremor, by precisely targeting the brain circuits involved in these disorders.
Key Features:
* Non-invasive: eliminates the need for surgery.
* High Precision: Targets brain areas 1,000x smaller than conventional ultrasound.
* 256-Element Array: Allows for focused ultrasound beam emission.
* Stabilization Mask: Enhances accuracy by minimizing head movement.
* potential Applications: Treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Image of the ultrasound helmet schematic – A schematic of the ultrasound helmet. (Martin et al., *Nat. Comm.2025)*
Source: https://www.sciencealert.com/ultrasound-can-probe-deep-into-the-brain-to-relieve-pain & https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2025-09-09-new-ultrasound-helmet-enables-deep-brain-stimulation-people-without-surgery