Abstract
Transcranial magneto-acoustical stimulation (TMAS) is a novel stimulation technology in which an ultrasonic wave within a magnetostatic field generates an electric current in an area of interest in the brain to modulate neuronal activities. As a key part of the neural network, neurons transmit information in the nervous system. However, the effect of TMAS on the neuronal firing pattern remains unknown. To address this problem, we investigated the stimulatory mechanism of TMAS on neurons, by using a Hodgkin-Huxley neuron model. The simulation results indicated that the magnetostatic field intensity and ultrasonic power affect the amplitude and interspike interval of neuronal action potential under a continuous wave ultrasound. The simulation results also showed that the ultrasonic power, duty cycle and repetition frequency can alter the firing pattern of neural action potential under pulsed wave ultrasound. This study may help to reveal and explain the biological mechanism of TMAS and to provide a theoretical basis for TMAS in the treatment or rehabilitation of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Highlights
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive brain stimulation tool, has been used for treating and rehabilitating neurological and psychiatric disorders (Hallett, 2000; Golestanirad et al, 2012; Laakso and Hirata, 2012)
The results showed that the interspike interval (ISI) significantly decreased with increasing magnetostatic field intensity from 0.5 to 7 T
We investigated the effect of Transcranial magneto-acoustical stimulation (TMAS) on the neuronal firing pattern
Summary
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive brain stimulation tool, has been used for treating and rehabilitating neurological and psychiatric disorders (Hallett, 2000; Golestanirad et al, 2012; Laakso and Hirata, 2012). The spatial resolution of TMS is more than several centimeters because the magnetic field cannot be effectively concentrated (Bystritsky et al, 2011). The stimulation depth of TMS is limited because the alternating magnetic fields obey Laplace’s Equation ∇2φ = 0, where φ is the electric potential (Norton, 2003). Compared with TMS, transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation (tFUS) is a noninvasive method for brain stimulation that can complete a stimulation at a high millimeter-resolution level (
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