Transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation improves spatial memory and modulates hippocampal neural oscillations in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Shuai Zhang; Zhongsheng Guo; Yihao Xu; Jinrui Mi; Jun Liu; Zichun Li; Xiaofeng Xie; Guizhi Xu

doi:10.3389/fnins.2024.1313639

Transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation improves spatial memory and modulates hippocampal neural oscillations in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Front Neurosci. 2024 Feb 7:18:1313639. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1313639. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Shuai Zhang^{1

2

3}, Zhongsheng Guo^{1

2

3}, Yihao Xu^{2

3}, Jinrui Mi^{2

3}, Jun Liu^{2

3}, Zichun Li^{2

3}, Xiaofeng Xie^{2

3}, Guizhi Xu^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Reliability and Intelligence of Electrical Equipment, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China.
² Hebei key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetism and Neural Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin, China.
³ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Bioelectromagnetic Technology and Intelligent Health, Tianjin, China.

Abstract

Introduction: In our study, we applied transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation (TMAS), a technique based on focused ultrasound stimulation within a static magnetic field, in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to explore the feasibility of TMAS on improving AD related spatial memory deficits and abnormal neural oscillations.

Methods: The mice treated with TMAS once daily for 21 days. We recorded local field potential signals in the hippocampal CA1 region of the mice after TMAS treatment with in-vivo electrophysiology and evaluated the neural rehabilitative effect of TMAS with sharp-wave ripple (SWR), gamma oscillations during SWRs, and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC). The spatial memory function of the mice was examined by the Morris water maze (MWM) task.

Results: We found that TMAS improved the performance of MWM related spatial cognitive functions compared with AD group. Furthermore, our results implied that TMAS alleviated abnormalities in hippocampal SWRs, increased slow gamma power during SWRs, and promoted theta-slow gamma phase-amplitude coupling. These findings suggest that TMAS could have a positive influence on spatial memory through the modulation of neural oscillations.

Discussion: This work emphasizes the potential of TMAS to serve as a non-invasive method for Alzheimer's disease rehabilitation and promote the application of TMAS for the treatment of more neurological and brain aging diseases in the future.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; local field potentials; neural oscillations; neuromodulation; transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The paper was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation under Grant No. 52377224 and the Central Guidance for Local Scientific and Technological Development Foundation under Grant No. 236Z7711G.