Scientists have inserted a "window" into a man's skull to look into his brain

A new study has shown that it is possible to use ultrasound waves to monitor activity in a person's brain. The man's brain activity was recorded as he performed tasks outside of a medical facility, including playing a video game.

To accomplish this, the researchers implanted a material in the man's skull that allowed ultrasound waves to pass into his brain, Live Science writes.

These waves traveled through an "acoustically transparent" window and reflected off the boundaries between tissues. Some of the reflected waves returned to the ultrasound transducer that was connected to the scanner. The data allowed the scientists to create a picture of what was happening in the man's brain, similar to the way an ultrasound scan can visualize a fetus in the womb.

The team observed changes in blood volume in the brain over time, specifically enlarging an area of the brain called the posterior parietal cortex and motor cortex. These two parts help coordinate movement. Evaluating blood size configurations is one method of indirectly tracking brain cell activity. That's because when neurons are more active, they need more oxygen and nutrients delivered by blood vessels.

The new study builds on preliminary research on inhuman primates. Now, working with humans, scientists have been able to use ultrasound imaging to monitor the precise neural activity unfolding in the human brain as it performs different tasks, such as playing a simple dot-connecting video game and playing the guitar.

"As in the case of primates, the patient's ultrasound data indicated intentions - moving the joystick, playing the guitar - while performing the actions themselves," comments the study in the journal Science Translational Medicine Dr. Charles Liu, co-author of the study and a neurosurgeon at the University of Southern California.

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