Recent advances and research progress on microsystems and bioeffects of terahertz neuromodulation

Meiting Liu; Juntao Liu; Wei Liang; Botao Lu; Penghui Fan; Yilin Song; Mixia Wang; Yirong Wu; Xinxia Cai

doi:10.1038/s41378-023-00612-1

Recent advances and research progress on microsystems and bioeffects of terahertz neuromodulation

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2023 Nov 14:9:143. doi: 10.1038/s41378-023-00612-1. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Meiting Liu^#^{1

2}, Juntao Liu^#^{1

2}, Wei Liang¹, Botao Lu^{1

2}, Penghui Fan^{1

2}, Yilin Song^{1

2}, Mixia Wang^{1

2}, Yirong Wu^{1

2}, Xinxia Cai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 China.
² School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049 China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Terahertz waves can interact with the nervous system of organisms under certain conditions. Compared to common optical modulation methods, terahertz waves have the advantages of low photon energy and low risk; therefore, the use of terahertz waves to regulate the nervous system is a promising new method of neuromodulation. However, most of the research has focused on the use of terahertz technology for biodetection, while relatively little research has been carried out on the biological effects of terahertz radiation on the nervous system, and there are almost no review papers on this topic. In the present article, we begin by reviewing principles and objects of research regarding the biological effects of terahertz radiation and summarizing the current state of related research from a variety of aspects, including the bioeffects of terahertz radiation on neurons in vivo and in vitro, novel regulation and detection methods with terahertz radiation devices and neural microelectrode arrays, and theoretical simulations of neural information encoding and decoding. In addition, we discuss the main problems and their possible causes and give some recommendations on possible future breakthroughs. This paper will provide insight and assistance to researchers in the fields of neuroscience, terahertz technology and biomedicine.

Keywords: Biosensors; Electrical and electronic engineering.

Publication types

Review