Transcranial-focused ultrasound is a non-invasive treatment used for degenerative movement disorders, pain, and mental disorders. In order to target a specific area of the brain, the treatment must be applied with an image-based technology for locating brain lesions.

Doctors typically use computed tomography (CT) to obtain information about a patient’s skull that is difficult to identify with MRI alone. CT scans expose the patient to radiation doses, which, while generally considered safe, are much higher than the doses associated with conventional X-rays. The number of CT scans could be lowered if more detailed information could be extracted from lower-dose imaging such as MRI.

Now, researchers from the Bionics Research Centre at KIST have developed an AI tool to generate CT images based on MRI images. A simulation experiment showed that a transcranial ultrasound procedure could be performed using MRI alone, using this approach.

Previous efforts have...