Recent advances have led to a surge of interest in focused ultrasound (FUS) as a non-invasive, potentially disruptive tool for the most intractable neurological conditions.Magnetic resonance-guided FUS thermoablation has been approved for the treatment of essential tremor and tremor-dominant Parkinson disease and is being investigated in psychiatric applications as well as in chronic pain and epilepsy.Transient opening of the blood–brain barrier for drug delivery is a burgeoning field, with early human studies demonstrating a favourable safety profile as well as versatility across and scalability within a range of clinical indications.Future studies will investigate the delivery of established pharmaceuticals and novel therapies in combination with FUS blood–brain barrier opening.Emerging applications are also harnessing the myriad of ways in which FUS can interact with the CNS, including immune modulation and neuromodulation.
