Abstract
Nonpharmacologic and nonsurgical transcranial modulation of the nerve function may provide new opportunities in evaluation and treatment of cranial nerve diseases. This study investigates the possibility of using low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (FUS) to selectively stimulate the rat abducens nerve located above the base of the skull. FUS (frequencies of 350 kHz and 650 kHz) operating in a pulsed mode was applied to the abducens nerve of Sprague-Dawley rats under stereotactic guidance. The abductive eyeball movement ipsilateral to the side of sonication was observed at 350 kHz, using the 0.36-msec tone burst duration (TBD), 1.5-kHz pulse repetition frequency (PRF), and the overall sonication duration of 200 msec. Histologic and behavioral monitoring showed no signs of disruption in the blood brain barrier (BBB), as well as no damage to the nerves and adjacent brain tissue resulting from the sonication. As a novel functional neuro-modulatory modality, the pulsed application of FUS has potential for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in diseases of the peripheral nervous system.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1568-1575 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 Sept |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health ( R21 NS074124 to Yoo) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, 2010-0027294 to Park). The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Drs. Yong-Zhi Zhang and Byoung-Kyong Min in data acquisition and animal preparation. The authors also thank Alan Chiu for editorial support.
Keywords
- Abducens nerve
- Brain
- Cranial nerve VI
- Focused ultrasound
- Neuromodulation
- Peripheral nervous system
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
- Biophysics
- Acoustics and Ultrasonics