Computational Modeling of the Acoustic Radiation Force and Viscoelastic Displacement for Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation

Attenuation-force ARF modeling in k-Wave is the most robust and least numerically error-prone across medium types and transducer geometries, and matches momentum-flux density tensor accuracy within TUS-relevant parameters.

• Why it matters: TUS planning often relies on harmonic pressure simulations, while ARF-driven tissue displacement is less standardized, leaving uncertainty about which ARF formulation and numerical settings to use.
• What they did: The study computed first-order pressure and velocity fields in k-Wave, then calculated ARF using momentum-flux density tensor, Reynolds stress force, and attenuation-force formulations, feeding ARF into a viscoelastic solver for displacement; convergence and accuracy were quantified versus solver choices and hyperparameters.
• The result: Tissue displacement distributions were similar across ARF formulations, but displacement accuracy decreased with increasing pulse duration, and the authors provide recommendations for ARF method and hyperparameters to improve displacement simulation.

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