ORCID
- Nadège Bault: 0000-0001-8244-6062
- Elsa F Fouragnan: 0000-0003-1485-0332
Abstract
Precisely neuromodulating deep brain regions could bring transformative advancements in both neuroscience and treatment. We demonstrate that non-invasive transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) can selectively modulate deep brain activity and affect learning and decision making, comparable to deep brain stimulation (DBS). We tested whether TUS could causally influence neural and behavioural responses by targeting the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) using a reinforcement learning task. Twenty-six healthy adults completed a within-subject TUS-fMRI experiment with three conditions: TUS to the NAcc, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), or Sham. After TUS, participants performed a probabilistic learning task during fMRI. TUS-NAcc altered BOLD responses to reward expectation in the NAcc and surrounding areas. It also affected reward-related behaviours, including win-stay strategy use, learning rate following rewards, learning curves, and repetition rates of rewarded choices. DBS-NAcc perturbed the same features, confirming target engagement. These findings establish TUS as a viable approach for non-invasive deep-brain neuromodulation.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2025-11-27
Publication Title
Nature Communications
Volume
16
Issue
1
ISSN
2041-1723
Acceptance Date
2025-10-03
Deposit Date
2025-12-03
Funding
The authors thank Dr Maryann Noonan and Dr Marco Wittmann for fruitful discussions on the probabilistic task; research assistants Ema Darrieutort and Joshua Marquez for their work on the safety data, all study participants for taking part in the study, and the Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC) MRI radiographers for their help with scanning. This research was supported by a UKRI Medical Research Council Future Leaders Fellowship, BBSRC, Neuromod + /ESPRC and ARIA grant (MR/T023007/1, BB/Y001494/1, EP/W035057/1 and SCNI-PR01-P15) (to E.F.F.). Scanning for this study was supported by the Brain Research & Imaging Centre (BRIC). Effort for N.S.P. was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health (U01 MH123427) and US Dept of Veterans Affairs (I50 RX002864). The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the funders.
Keywords
Humans, Nucleus Accumbens/physiology, Reward, Male, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Adult, Female, Deep Brain Stimulation/methods, Young Adult, Gyrus Cinguli/physiology, Decision Making/physiology, Learning/physiology
Recommended Citation
Yaakub, S., Eraifej, J., Bault, N., Lojkiewiez, M., Bellec, E., Roberts, J., Philip, N., Divanbeighi Zand, A., Green, A., Rushworth, M., & Fouragnan, E. (2025) 'Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation of the human nucleus accumbens impacts reward sensitivity', Nature Communications, 16(1). Available at: 10.1038/s41467-025-65080-9
