Two scientists demonstrated that bombarding mouse brains with sound waves not only removed disease-related amyloid-β plaques but also restored memory in mice with Alzheimer’s-like symptoms.

In the clinic, doctors mostly use ultrasound to image patients’ tissues. But some researchers have started to use acoustic waves to improve drug delivery. For example, neuroscientists have developed ultrasound methods to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier, the cellular wall that controls what can move from the bloodstream into the brain and vice versa.