| In a new study from Carnegie Mellon University, volunteers' ability to type letters with their minds using a noninvasive brain-computer interface increased in response to ultrasound stimulation of a brain area associated with visual motion processing. This research, which was partly funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and is part of the National Institutes of Health Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies® (BRAIN) Initiative, was published in the journal Nature Communications. Brain-computer interfaces can enable people with paralysis to control devices such as robotic arms and virtual keyboards with their minds. These interfaces read brain signals either through invasively implanted arrays or through noninvasive techniques, such as electroencephalography (EEG), that do not require brain surgery. Currently, the accuracy rates of noninvasive brain-computer interfaces are around 70 to 80 percent, so there is room for improvement. Pairing these interfaces with various types of noninvasive neuromodulation might help improve their performance. This study tested whether low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound, a technique that can precisely target specific parts of the brain, can improve control of a brain-computer interface and investigated possible mechanisms of action. | 
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