Studie hat zum ersten Mal gezeigt, dass die belohnungssuchenden Mechanismen des Gehirns, die sich im Nucleus accumbens befinden, durch transkranielle Ultraschallstimulation (TUS) verändert werden können.

>In this project, the researchers recruited 26 healthy participants who visited the BRIC facility four times – once to plan their TUS intervention, followed by three sessions where TUS was applied to different parts of their brain.

>Roughly 10 minutes after the ultrasound intervention, participants were placed in the scanner to perform a series of tasks over the space of an hour while the research team monitored changes in their behaviour and brain activity.

>The participants’ performance in the tasks was also cross-checked against that of patients with bilateral deep brain stimulation electrodes targeted to the nucleus accumbens as part of therapies for treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa.

>The results showed that while DBS often normalises reward-seeking behaviour, TUS had an opposite and excitatory effect – however, both result in people’s learning and reward sensitivity being altered.

[Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation of the human nucleus accumbens impacts reward sensitivity | Nature Communications](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65080-9)