Noninvasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Temporally Interfering Electric Fields

• Main Authors: Rudenko, Andrii (Contributor), Cassara, Antonino M. (Author), Neufeld, Esra (Author), Kuster, Niels (Author), Pascual-Leone, Alvaro (Author), Grossman, Nir (Contributor), Bono, David C (Contributor), Dedic, Nina (Contributor), Kodandaramaiah, Suhasa Bangalore (Contributor), Suk, Ho-Jun (Contributor), Tsai, Li-Huei (Contributor), Boyden, Edward (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Media Laboratory (Contributor), McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT (Contributor), Picower Institute for Learning and Memory (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier, 2017-12-11T15:15:31Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We report a noninvasive strategy for electrically stimulating neurons at depth. By delivering to the brain multiple electric fields at frequencies too high to recruit neural firing, but which differ by a frequency within the dynamic range of neural firing, we can electrically stimulate neurons throughout a region where interference between the multiple fields results in a prominent electric field envelope modulated at the difference frequency. We validated this temporal interference (TI) concept via modeling and physics experiments, and verified that neurons in the living mouse brain could follow the electric field envelope. We demonstrate the utility of TI stimulation by stimulating neurons in the hippocampus of living mice without recruiting neurons of the overlying cortex. Finally, we show that by altering the currents delivered to a set of immobile electrodes, we can steerably evoke different motor patterns in living mice.
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award 1DP1NS087724)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Award 1R01MH103910-01)
National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award CBET 1053233)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant 1RF1AG047661)
National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant NS051874)