Ultrasound waves ease pain by influencing brain areas

Focused ultrasound could help ease pain by manipulating the area of the brain that registers pain, a proof-of-principle study published February 1 in Pain found. Researchers led by Wynn Legon, PhD, from Virginia Tech University found that low-intensity focused ultrasound can nonsurgically modulate the anterior insula and posterior insula in humans, with participants reporting lower pain levels after undergoing procedures. “Taken together, low-intensity focused ultrasound is an effective noninvasive method to individually target subregions of the insula in humans for site-specific effects on brain biomarkers of pain processing and autonomic reactivity that translates to reduced perceived pain to a transient heat stimulus,” Legon and co-authors wrote. Previous research has explored the potential of noninvasive techniques to treat neural issues. Low-intensity focused ultrasound is one such method, which nondestructively and reversibly changes brain activity with high spatial resolution and adjustable depth of focus. The Legon team investigated whether low-intensity focused ultrasound to either the left anterior or posterior insulae would affect the amplitude of the contact heat-evoked potential, pain ratings, or heart rate variability. The insula makes up part of the cerebral cortex and serves as a critical area of the brain for nociception and the pain experience. The researchers included 23 healthy participants in their study. The participants had heat applied to the...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Ultrasound Source Type: news