An ultrasound research team led by Prof. ZHENG Hairong in Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a portable ultrasound system specifically for ultrasound neuromodulation applications. 

By transmitting acoustic waveforms into brain tissue, ultrasound is able to non-invasively and remotely stimulate the neurons by activating voltage-gated sodium channels.  

Ultrasound has been demonstrated for the stimulation of retina. The inter-neurons beyond photoreceptors were activated to potentially restore some sense of vision. It could also enhance the performance on sensory discrimination without affecting task attention or response bias. Sonication could trigger transient tactile sensations on the hand area contralateral to the sonicated hemisphere.

Therefore, ultrasound has been demonstrated for different scales of neuro-stimulation from single neuron to human brain, which offers a powerful tool for remotely modulating neural activity with non-invasive feature. 

The ultrasound physical parameters including the operating mode, frequency, pulse repetition frequency, intensity and pulse duration are adjustable in a friendly manner.  

The newly developed ultrasound system supports the synchronization input&output to facilitate other neurophysiological devices such as MEA, or patch clamp, which plays a key role in the study of key technologies such as non-invasive neuro-modulation and sonogenetics. 

The new ultrasound neuro-modulation equipment has already been used for the modulation of small animal and non-human primates. 

The paper entitled “A Portable Ultrasound System for Non-Invasive Ultrasonic Neuro-Stimulation”  was published in IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 

Nature reported this work in a review paper entitled "Ultrasound for the Brain".