Method of local application of focused ultrasound to deep brain structures of an unrestrained unanesthetized animal

To study structural--functional relations in the CNS a widely used method is that based on blocking brain structures by exposure to various factors: electric, temperature, chemical, and so on. Changes in the animal's responses after blocking of brain structures are then studied. However, the use of all known blocking procedures is accompanied by unavoidable damage to brain structures located above the blocked formation, and in addition, the operations are complicated by secondary phenomena in neighboring structures as a result of disturbance of the circulation in part of the vascular system. The method based on application of focused ultrasound (FITS) to block deep brain structures is known to be free from the above drawbacks [i, 2].