Transcranial Focused Ultrasound for Identifying the Neural Substrate of Conscious Perception
arXiv Preprint Archive July 11, 2025 Daniel K. Freeman, Brian Odegaard, Seung-Schik Yoo et al.
Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) can stimulate the human brain non-invasively through the skull with millimeter-scale spatial resolution, targeting both cortical and deep brain structures. This emerging tool offers a promising method for investigating the neural basis of conscious perception, overcoming the coarse spatial resolution of traditional electrical or magnetic stimulation. The authors provide a roadmap for using tFUS in humans to explore the neural substrate of conscious perception, emphasizing the need for careful experimental planning due to extensive preparation and regulatory approvals.