April 10, 2026

expert reaction to study of deep brain stimulation for self-harm in autism

A study published in Science Advances looks at deep brain simulation for the regulation of autism related self-injurious behaviour. 

Prof Geoff Bird, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford, said:

“The animal work seems impressive and of independent value to understanding neuroanatomy of the mouse. The link to autism from the animal work is more of a stretch, but contributes to a wider literature. I’m afraid I’m not convinced at all by the data from the autistic children. The small sample itself is not necessarily a problem, but perhaps more worrying is the lack of a comparison (or control) group. We have no idea if it is the stimulation that results in symptom improvements, or whether the improvements would have happened over time, or whether it is a placebo effect. Given the very intrusive nature of the procedure, we would need much firmer evidence before considering this as a clinical tool for autistic individuals.” 

Prof Marcus Kaiser, Professor of Neuroinformatics, University of Nottingham, said:

“While the results are encouraging, showing that stimulating the Nucleus accumbens can lead to behavioural benefits in children, it is important to note that there are challenges to reach patient benefit: There are few hospitals in the UK that can perform DBS procedures, any surgery carries the risk of a brain infection, and non-invasive (no implanted electrodes needed) alternatives for stimulating the same target have already been tested in humans.”

References:

[1] Peng, X., et al. (2024). “Non-invasive suppression of the human nucleus accumbens (NAc) with transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) modulates the reward network: a pilot study.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 18.

[2] Yaakub, S. N., et al. (2025). “Non-invasive ultrasonic neuromodulation of the human nucleus accumbens impacts reward sensitivity.” Nat Commun 16(1): 10192.

‘Regulation of autism-related self-injurious behavior by electrical stimulation of corticostriatal circuits in mice and humans’ by Kristina Zhang et al. was published in Science Advances at 19:00 UK time on Friday 10^th April. 

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb5842

Declared interests

Prof Geoff Bird: None

Prof Marcus Kaiser: I am also advisory board member and CSO, respectively, in two companies that develop noninvasive neuromodulation technology. The companies are NeurGear (advisory board member) and DeepBrain (CSO). However, I am not involved in the two research papers that I mentioned below.