Optically-generated focused ultrasound for noninvasive brain stimulation with ultrahigh precision

Yueming Li; Ying Jiang; Lu Lan; Xiaowei Ge; Ran Cheng; Yuewei Zhan; Guo Chen; Linli Shi; Runyu Wang; Nan Zheng; Chen Yang; Ji-Xin Cheng

doi:10.1038/s41377-022-01004-2

Optically-generated focused ultrasound for noninvasive brain stimulation with ultrahigh precision

Light Sci Appl. 2022 Nov 3;11(1):321. doi: 10.1038/s41377-022-01004-2.

Authors

Yueming Li^#¹, Ying Jiang^#^{2

3}, Lu Lan^#⁴, Xiaowei Ge⁴, Ran Cheng⁵, Yuewei Zhan⁶, Guo Chen⁴, Linli Shi⁵, Runyu Wang⁴, Nan Zheng⁷, Chen Yang^{8

9}, Ji-Xin Cheng^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
² Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
³ Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02142, USA.
⁴ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
⁷ Division of Materials Science and Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA.
⁸ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. cheyang@bu.edu.
⁹ Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. cheyang@bu.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. jxcheng@bu.edu.
¹¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, 02215, USA. jxcheng@bu.edu.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

High precision neuromodulation is a powerful tool to decipher neurocircuits and treat neurological diseases. Current non-invasive neuromodulation methods offer limited precision at the millimeter level. Here, we report optically-generated focused ultrasound (OFUS) for non-invasive brain stimulation with ultrahigh precision. OFUS is generated by a soft optoacoustic pad (SOAP) fabricated through embedding candle soot nanoparticles in a curved polydimethylsiloxane film. SOAP generates a transcranial ultrasound focus at 15 MHz with an ultrahigh lateral resolution of 83 µm, which is two orders of magnitude smaller than that of conventional transcranial-focused ultrasound (tFUS). Here, we show effective OFUS neurostimulation in vitro with a single ultrasound cycle. We demonstrate submillimeter transcranial stimulation of the mouse motor cortex in vivo. An acoustic energy of 0.6 mJ/cm², four orders of magnitude less than that of tFUS, is sufficient for successful OFUS neurostimulation. OFUS offers new capabilities for neuroscience studies and disease treatments by delivering a focus with ultrahigh precision non-invasively.

Grants and funding

R01 NS109794/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States