An interventional study of tFUS and Sham tFUS in Impulsive Behavior, sponsored by Mary Phillips, MD MD (Cantab). Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 45 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-11.
Sponsored by Mary Phillips, MD MD (Cantab) · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
The investigators aim to examine the immediate effect of transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) on brain activity in healthy adults.
The investigators will examine ventral striatum (VS) target engagement by tFUS in healthy adults using a reward processing task that reliably activates the VS.
158 studies on the registry are indexed under Impulsive Behavior; 31 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 25 is below the median of 50 across 128 interventional studies indexed under Impulsive Behavior.
Browse Impulsive Behavior studies →Mary Phillips, MD MD (Cantab) is the lead sponsor of 5 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Short tests of memory and thinking, each scored out of 30. Lower scores suggest more difficulty; criteria give a range, either to include people with memory problems or to leave them out.
MMSE and MoCA
Short tests of memory and thinking, each scored out of 30. Lower scores suggest more difficulty; criteria give a range, either to include people with memory problems or to leave them out.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
VS tFUS (tFUS applied to the ventral striatum) Sham tFUS (go through the motions of applying tFUS to the VS)
Device: tFUS · Device: Sham tFUS
VS tFUS (tFUS applied to the ventral striatum) Sham tFUS (go through the motions of applying tFUS to the VS)
Device: tFUS · Device: Sham tFUS
tFUS is a brief stimulation of a part of the brain called the ventral striatum with low-intensity sound waves that pass through the scalp and skull safely.
Sham tFUS goes through the motions of applying tFUS to the brain. Participants will know that one session will be a sham, but they will be blinded to which session is the sham
Ventral striatum (VS) activity to prediction error before receiving tFUS to the VS
Measure of ventral striatum (VS) activity to prediction error before receiving tFUS to the VS
Time frame: Two visits over up to 8 weeks
Ventral striatum (VS) activity to prediction error after receiving tFUS to the VS
Measure of ventral striatum (VS) activity to prediction error after receiving tFUS to the VS
Time frame: Two visits over up to 8 weeks
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: Yes — Data from this study will be available for access by the research community via National Institute of Mental Health Data Archive (NDA).
Time frame: After each submission cycle, NDA conducts quality assurance (QA) procedures on submitted data during which access to data and images for research is temporarily suspended, typically a period lasting 4 months prior to sharing. As required by NDA, studies will also be created that contain the data used for every publication. Those studies will be shared when the pre-print is available. NDA studies have digital object identifiers (DOI) to aid findability. We will include DOI in relevant publications. NDA will decide how long to preserve the data, but has not deleted any deposited data to date.
Access criteria: To request access of the data, researchers will use the standard processes at NDA, and the NDA Data Access Committee will decide which requests to grant. The standard NDA data access process allows access for one year and is renewable.
This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Mary Phillips, MD MD (Cantab)