Non-invasive measurement of hemodynamic change during 8 MHz transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation using near-infrared spectroscopy

Evgenii Kim,
Eloise Anguluan,
Sangyeon Youn,
Jihun Kim,
Jae Youn Hwang and
Jae Gwan KimEmail author View ORCID ID profile

BMC Neuroscience201920:12

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12868-019-0493-9

Received: 2 August 2018
Accepted: 12 March 2019
Published: 18 March 2019

Abstract

Background

Transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) attracts wide attention in neuroscience as an effective noninvasive approach to modulate brain circuits. In spite of this, the effects of tFUS on the brain is still unclear, and further investigation is needed. The present study proposes to use near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to observe cerebral hemodynamic change caused by tFUS in a noninvasive manner.

Results

The results show a transient increase of oxyhemoglobin and decrease of deoxyhemoglobin concentration in the mouse model induced by ultrasound stimulation of the somatosensory cortex with a frequency of 8 MHz but not in sham. In addition, the amplitude of hemodynamics change can be related to the peak intensity of the acoustic wave.

Conclusion

High frequency 8 MHz ultrasound was shown to induce hemodynamic changes measured using NIRS through the intact mouse head. The implementation of NIRS offers the possibility of investigating brain response noninvasively for different tFUS parameters through cerebral hemodynamic change.