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GenBedellSmith t1_j5p7rhr wrote

Reply to comment by Smokey-bob in Focused ultrasound surgery: A sound you can’t hear but may one day change your life by PatatasFrittas

They're different types of focused ultrasound! Or rather, involve different parameters/protocols.

High-intensity ultrasound is what is being used for neurosurgery. Low-intensity ultrasound is what's being used for treating disorders like depression.

Low-intensity ultrasound doesn't destroy any part of the brain. It merely inhibits them temporarily. This is more similar to Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which is currently being used to treat depression, or to Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) which also shows promise.

The benefit of ultrasound is that it can target much deeper sites in the brain and with higher precision than TMS, which leads to new possible treatments. This is all still in the very early stages though.

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Smokey-bob t1_j5pk8ko wrote

I was aware of the magnetic treatments, was not aware that this would be similar, article makes it read like it would rely on destruction, so I am glad that this is different. I will have to rely on studies for long term exposure to less than destructive amplitudes, but ultrasonics do weird things to liquids

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