Preliminary Examination of the Effects of Focused Ultrasound on Living Skin and Temperature at the Skin-Transducer Interface.

Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Stimulation (tFUS) is a new, rapidly growing field related to the study and treatment of brain circuits. Establishing safety cutoffs for focused ultrasound is crucial for non-ablative neurological ultrasound experiments. In addition to potential focal heating, there is concern about temperature elevation at the skin surface.

A Miniature Ultrasound Source for Neural Modulation.

This work describes a unique ultrasound (US) exposure system designed to create very localized ( [Formula: see text]) sound fields at operating frequencies that are currently being used for preclinical US neuromodulation. This system can expose small clusters of neuronal tissue, such as cell cultures or intact brain structures in target animal models, opening up opportunities to examine possible mechanisms of action. We modified a dental descaler and drove it at a resonance frequency of 96 kHz, well above its nominal operating point of 28 kHz.