Infrared Neural Stimulation of Thalamocortical Brain Slices

Infrared neural stimulation (INS) has been well characterized in the peripheral nervous system, and has been shown to enable stimulation with high spatial precision and without causing the typical electrical stimulation artifact on the recording electrode. The next step in the development of INS is to demonstrate feasibility to stimulate neurons located in the central nervous system (CNS). Thalamocortical brain slices were used to establish feasibility of INS in the CNS and to optimize laser parameters. Infrared light was used to evoke action potentials in the brain slice with no electrical stimulation artifact. This response was blocked by the application of tetrodotoxin demonstrating neurological origin of the recorded signal. Threshold radiant exposure decreased as the absorption coefficient of the wavelength of light increased. Higher repetition rates lead to a decrease in threshold radiant exposure, and threshold radiant exposure was found to decrease as the spot size diameter increased. Additionally, neuronal responses to INS were intracellularly recorded demonstrating artifact free electrical recordings. The results from this paper lay the foundation for future in vivo studies to develop INS for CNS stimulation.

[1]  Claus-Peter Richter,et al.  Laser stimulation of auditory neurons: effect of shorter pulse duration and penetration depth. , 2008, Biophysical journal.

[2]  B. Connors,et al.  Thalamocortical responses of mouse somatosensory (barrel) cortexin vitro , 1991, Neuroscience.

[3]  D. Coulter,et al.  Physiology and pharmacology of corticothalamic stimulation-evoked responses in rat somatosensory thalamic neurons in vitro. , 1997, Journal of neurophysiology.

[4]  Anita Mahadevan-Jansen,et al.  Biophysical mechanisms of transient optical stimulation of peripheral nerve. , 2007, Biophysical journal.

[5]  Joseph T. Walsh,et al.  Optical Parameter Variability in Laser Nerve Stimulation: A Study of Pulse Duration, Repetition Rate, and Wavelength , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[6]  L. Plaghki,et al.  Direct isolation of ultra-late (C-fibre) evoked brain potentials by CO2 laser stimulation of tiny cutaneous surface areas in man , 1996, Neuroscience Letters.

[7]  H. Yuan,et al.  Hypothermic preconditioning reduces Purkinje cell death possibly by preventing the over-expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase in rat cerebellar slices after an in vitro simulated ischemia , 2006, Neuroscience.

[8]  B. Widrow,et al.  On the Nature and Elimination of Stimulus Artifact in Nerve Signals Evoked and Recorded Using Surface Electrodes , 1982, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[9]  William T. Newsome,et al.  Cortical microstimulation influences perceptual judgements of motion direction , 1990, Nature.

[10]  JOHN W. Moore,et al.  Membranes, Ions and Impulses. A Chapter of Classical Biophysics. Kenneth S. Cole. University of California, Berkeley, 1968. x + 572 pp., illus. $15. Biophysics Series, Vol. 1 , 1969 .

[11]  D F Stegeman,et al.  Models and analysis of compound nerve action potentials. , 1991, Critical reviews in biomedical engineering.

[12]  P. Konrad,et al.  Optical stimulation of neural tissue in vivo. , 2005, Optics letters.

[13]  J. Boulant,et al.  Neuronal thermosensitivity and survival of rat hypothalamic slices in recording chambers , 1997, Brain Research.

[14]  G. M. Hale,et al.  Optical Constants of Water in the 200-nm to 200-microm Wavelength Region. , 1973, Applied optics.

[15]  Jennifer L. Schei,et al.  Complete Optical Neurophysiology: Toward Optical Stimulation and Recording of Neural Tissue , 2009 .

[16]  O. Ottersen,et al.  A simple in vitro model of ischemia based on hippocampal slice cultures and propidium iodide fluorescence. , 1999, Brain research. Brain research protocols.

[17]  H. Edmonds,et al.  Pitfalls in the use of brain slices , 1988, Progress in Neurobiology.

[18]  Anita Mahadevan-Jansen,et al.  Application of infrared light for in vivo neural stimulation. , 2005, Journal of biomedical optics.

[19]  Joseph T. Walsh,et al.  Optical stimulation of auditory neurons: Effects of acute and chronic deafening , 2008, Hearing Research.

[20]  Arnold R. Kriegstein,et al.  Whole cell recording from neurons in slices of reptilian and mammalian cerebral cortex , 1989, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[21]  Iwona Stepniewska,et al.  Microstimulation reveals specialized subregions for different complex movements in posterior parietal cortex of prosimian galagos. , 2005, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[22]  P. Negulescu,et al.  Characterization of voltage-gated sodium-channel blockers by electrical stimulation and fluorescence detection of membrane potential , 2006, Nature Biotechnology.

[23]  Wen-hsien Wu,et al.  Failure to confirm report of light-evoked response of peripheral nerve to low power helium-neon laser light stimulus , 1987, Brain Research.

[24]  D. Contreras,et al.  Comparison of Responses to Electrical Stimulation and Whisker Deflection Using Two Different Voltage-sensitive Dyes in Mouse Barrel Cortex in Vivo , 2005, The Journal of Membrane Biology.

[25]  T Karu,et al.  He‐Ne laser irradiation of single identified neurons , 1992, Lasers in surgery and medicine.

[26]  V. Shashoua,et al.  Protein synthesis as a function of depth in slices of rat hippocampus , 1990, Neuroscience Letters.

[27]  K. Deisseroth,et al.  Millisecond-timescale, genetically targeted optical control of neural activity , 2005, Nature Neuroscience.

[28]  U. Misgeld,et al.  The preservation of nerve cells in rat neostriatal slices maintained in vitro: A morphological study , 1980, Brain Research.

[29]  Sharon Thomsen,et al.  Optically mediated nerve stimulation: Identification of injury thresholds , 2007, Lasers in surgery and medicine.

[30]  J. M. Khosrofian,et al.  Measurement of a Gaussian laser beam diameter through the direct inversion of knife-edge data. , 1983, Applied optics.

[31]  E. J. Tehovnik,et al.  Direct and indirect activation of cortical neurons by electrical microstimulation. , 2006, Journal of neurophysiology.

[32]  Claus-Peter Richter,et al.  Optical Stimulation of the Facial Nerve: A New Monitoring Technique? , 2007, The Laryngoscope.

[33]  C. Blakemore,et al.  The in vitro slice preparation for combined morphological and electrophysiological studies of rat visual cortex , 1988, Neuroscience Research.

[34]  U. Oron,et al.  Effects of power densities, continuous and pulse frequencies, and number of sessions of low-level laser therapy on intact rat brain. , 2006, Photomedicine and laser surgery.

[35]  Li-Ming Su,et al.  Noncontact stimulation of the cavernous nerves in the rat prostate using a tunable-wavelength thulium fiber laser. , 2008, Journal of endourology.

[36]  Robert Plonsey,et al.  Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach Duke University’s First MOOC , 2013 .

[37]  Anita Mahadevan-Jansen,et al.  Pulsed laser versus electrical energy for peripheral nerve stimulation , 2007, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[38]  S. Geuna,et al.  Low-power laser biostimulation enhances nerve repair after end-to-side neurorrhaphy: a double-blind randomized study in the rat median nerve model , 2004, Lasers in Medical Science.

[39]  M. Querry,et al.  Wedge shaped cell for highly absorbent liquids: infrared optical constants of water. , 1989, Applied optics.

[40]  Claus-Peter Richter,et al.  Laser stimulation of the auditory nerve , 2006, Lasers in surgery and medicine.

[41]  Joseph T. Walsh,et al.  Characterization of single auditory nerve fibers in response to laser stimulation , 2008, SPIE BiOS.