Open Letter on Intervention Regimes and Adverse Events in Focused Ultrasound for Neuromodulation
A community of researchers and clinicians in focused ultrasound neuromodulation has prepared an open letter on intervention regimes and safety reporting in this field. The letter was prompted by a recently reported adverse event in a clinical trial that used low-frequency ultrasound outside the low-intensity domain.
Its purpose is to provide a clear, broadly shared expert perspective on:
- how to distinguish low-, intermediate-, and high-intensity regimes,
- how cavitation risk should be assessed across these regimes, and
- how continued collaboration and detailed reporting can support safe development of this technology for the benefit of patients and the public.
If you wish to support this position, you are invited to add your name as a signatory below.
Support and sign the Open Letter
If you wish to show your support for this letter, please complete the signature form. By signing, you agree that your name and institutional affiliation may be displayed on a public list of signatories, demonstrating the breadth of support within the scientific, clinical, and broader focused ultrasound communities.
160 Signees
Bradley E. Treeby
NeuroHarmonics LTD, 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, UK
Camilla Nord
University of Cambridge, MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Harriet Lea-Banks
University College London
Muhammad Zubair
Openwater
Jean-Michel Escoffre
iBraiN, U1253, Inserm, Université de Tours, France
Kai Yu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut
Tulika Nandi
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Junfeng Sun
Professor
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
James Hong
Academic Clinical Fellow in psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Vincent P Ferrera
Zuckerman Institute for Mind Brain and Behavior, Columbia University
Nader Saffari
University College London (UCL)
David Norris
Radboud University, Donders Institute for Brain Cognition and Behaviour
Davide Martino
Department of Clinical Neuroscience & Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB Canada
Johannes Algermissen
University of Zurich
Francesco Prada
Istituto Neurologico C. Besta, Milano
Lilian Aline Weber
Center for Cognitive Science, Osnabrueck University, Osnabrueck, Germany
Karin Roelofs
Donders Institute, Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Marco K Wittmann
University College London
Vera A Khokhlova
University of Washington, USA and Moscow State University, Russia, D.Sc
Gianmarco Pinton
Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill & North, Carolina State University
Marcus Kaiser
Centre for Neurotechnology, Neuromodulation, and Neurotherapeutics, University of Nottingham and DeepBrain, United Kingdom
Norman Spivak
UCLA
Ying Meng
University of Toronto
Yasuo Terao
Department of Medical Physiology, Kyorin University
Rajiv Mahadevan
Attune Neurosciences
Pavlos Anastasiadis
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland
Charles F. Caskey
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Daisy Thompson-Lake
Assistant Professor
University of Virginia
Maximilian Lueckel
M.Sc.
Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research (LIR) & Neuroimaging Center (NIC), Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center, Mainz, Germany
Elsa F. Fouragnan
School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, UK; Brain Research Imaging Center, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, UK
Trevor Chong
Monash University
Jean-Francois Aubry
Institute Physics for Medicine Paris – INSERM, CNRS, ESPCI Paris-PSL, Paris, France
Mikhail G Shapiro
Max Delbrück Professor of Chemical & Medical Engineering at Caltech; Investigator at HHM
Mary R Lee
MD
Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington DC
Kenneth van der Zee
PhD Candidate
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour
Nadège Bault
University of Plymouth, UK
W Apoutou N'Djin
Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound (LabTAU), INSERM, University Claude Bernard of Lyon, France
Marwan Engels
Donders Institute
Ivan Toni
Donders Institute, Radboud University
Niklas Kroner-Weigl
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
Lawrence A Crum
University of Washington
G Bruce Pike
University of Calgary
Charlotte Reese Marshall
Assistant Professor
University of Birmingham
Oleg A Sapozhnikov
University of Washington, USA and Moscow State University, Russia
Sophie Morse
Dr
Imperial College London
Bin He
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
Nima Khalighinejad
University of Oxford
Seiki Konishi
Department of Neurophysiology, Juntendo University School of Medicine
Tommaso Di Ianni
PhD
University of California San Francisco
Alexander Bystritsky
CEO
Brainsonix
Li Min Chen
MD, PhD
Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Joseph Balfe
University of Oxford
Cyril Atkinson-Clement
Brain Research and Imaging Centre, Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL6 8BU, United Kingdom.
Leo P Sugrue
MD, PhD
University of California, San Francisco
James Coxon
Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Axel Thielscher
Technical Unversity of Denmark & Danish Research Centre for MR
Arno Schmitgen
Localite GmbH
Eleanor Stride
University of Oxford
Jan Kubanek
Psychiatry, Radiology, Neurology, and Biomedical Engineering; Washington University
Seung-Schik Yoo
Associate Professor, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Ayache Bouakaz
Inserm iBraiN
Estelle Raffin
Dr
CNRS, LPNC
Robin O. Cleveland
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oxford
Hairong Zheng
William J Tyler
UAB Center for Neuroengineering and Brain Computer Interfaces
David J Segar
Nudge
Andrew Bishay
Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences University of California, Los Angeles
Daniel Whitcomb
University of Bristol
Raag D. Airan
Stanford University
Taylor Webb
Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, University of Utah
Sumner Norman
Forest Neurotech
Eva Feredoes
Dr
University of Reading
Maxime Lafond
Laboratory of Therapeutic Applications of Ultrasound, LabTAU, Inserm U1032, Lyon, France
Til Ole Bergmann
Prof. Dr.
Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center Mainz, Germany
Arno Villringer
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Yunzhe Liu
Beijing Normal University
Samuel Pichardo
Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Eleanor Martin
Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London
Joshua Marquez
Mr
King's College London
Kenneth Bader
University of Chicago
Hanneke den Ouden
Professor
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, the Netherlands
Julia Sophia Crone
University of Vienna; Paris Lodron University of Salzburg
Christopher Petkov
University of Iowa
James McLaughlan
Dr
University of Leeds
Ruggero Condorelli
Research Assistant
Donders Centre for Cognition
José A Pineda-Pardo
HM CINAC MADRID (Centro Integral de Neurociencias Abarca Campal); Hospital Universitario HM Puerta del Sur, HM Hospitales. Madrid, Spain
Hao-Li Liu
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University
Adam C Waspe
Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto
Elena Andres
Dr.
Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research
Dennis L Parker
Department of Radiology and Imaging Science, University of Utahs
Tatiana D. Khokhlova
Division of Gastroenterology, University of Washington School of Medicine Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington
Nathan McDannold
Lei SUN
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Fady Girgis
University of Calgary
Hartwig Roman Siebner
Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital; Amager and Hvidovre
James Choi
Imperial College London
Joline Fan
University of California San Francisco
Benjamin Kop
Stanford University
Jonas Kielmann
Localite GmbH
Pierre Pouget
ICM Paris Brain Institute, CNRS