Focused ultrasound stimulation of the centromedial amygdala disrupts facial emotion recognition via reduced amygdala–insula connectivity
Yuanzhou Wei, Toshiko Tanaka, Kazuki Enomoto, Masahiko Haruno
Scientific Reports 2026 · 10.1038/s41598-026-58284-6
human healthyhealthyfmribehaviour
Specieshuman
Subjects80 participants
Sessions per subject1
Randomisednot reported
Blindingnot reported
Sham / controlactive control site
Auditory controlnot reported
Readout timingoffline
Anaesthesianot applicable
Readoutsfmri, behaviour — facial expression recognition task accuracy (fearful/neutral/happy); generalized PPI functional connectivity analysis
Direction of effectmixed or uncleartFUS increased right CMA BOLD activity during emotional face processing (excitatory-like) while simultaneously decreasing CMA-right insula and CMA-left IFG/OFC functional connectivity and impairing fearful/emotional face recognition accuracy (inhibitory-like effect on connectivity and behaviour).
Adverse eventsnone observedThere were no adverse effects of tFUS in both groups, participants did not report any discomfort or annoying feelings during and after the sonication.
Exposures
Exposure 1: tFUS to right centromedial amygdala (CMA)
Target: central amygdala — “right centromedial amygdala (CMA)”
Device: NeuroFUS · Sonic Concepts (sold by Brainbox) · NeuroFUS PRO CTX-500 ✓
| Waveform | pulsed | |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamental frequency (kHz) | 500 | ✓✓✓ |
| Pulse duration (ms) | 30 | ✓✓✓ |
| Pulse repetition frequency (Hz) | 10 | ✓✓✓ |
| Duty cycle (%) | 30pulse duration × PRF gives 30% | ✓✓✓ |
| Sonication duration (s) | 40 | ✓✓✓ |
| Free-field pressure (kPa) | not reported | |
|---|---|---|
| Free-field Isppa (W/cm²) | 30.02 | ✓✓✓ |
| Free-field Ispta (W/cm²) | 9 | ✓✓✓ |
| In-situ estimate | simulationmean or range across subjects | |
| In-situ pressure (kPa) | not reported | |
| In-situ Isppa (W/cm²) | 4.92 | ✓✓✓ |
| In-situ Ispta (W/cm²) | not reported |
Protocol, in the paper’s words
The burst length was 30 ms, and the period (the length of time between the start of each burst) was 100 ms; in other words, 30 ms bursts of ultrasound was produced every 100 ms (duty cycle = 30%, pulse repetition frequency = 10 Hz). The total stimulation lasted 40s. On Day 2, each participant received a 40-second low-intensity tFUS stimulation targeting either the right amygdala (tFUS group) or white matter (control group).
Flags from extraction
n_subjects— 80 participants were recruited and stated to have 'participated in the two-day tFUS experiment', but only 52 were included in the behavioural analysis (51 for fMRI) after post-hoc exclusions for data quality; enrolled number (80) is reported here.direction_of_effect— tFUS increased CMA BOLD activity but decreased CMA-insula/IFG-OFC connectivity and impaired behaviour; the net excitatory/inhibitory direction is not straightforward, hence mixed_or_unclear.randomised— The paper does not state whether assignment to tFUS vs. control (white matter) group was randomised.