The Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Ministry of Education, College of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310027, P. R. China.
J Integr Neurosci. 2020 Sep 30;19(3):413-420. doi: 10.31083/j.jin.2020.03.207.
Electrical stimulation in the brain is an emerging therapy for treating a wide range of neurological disorders. Although electrical pulses are commonly used in the clinic, other electrical waveforms such as sinusoidal-waves have been investigated to improve the therapeutic efficacy, to reduce the risk of tissue damage induced by stimulation, and to decrease the consumption of electrical energy. However, the effects of sinusoidal stimulation on neuronal activity are still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the neuronal responses to the stimulation of 50-Hz sinusoidal-waves applied on the afferent fibers of the neurons in the hippocampal CA1 region of Sprague-Dawley rat . Results show that the stimulation increased the firing rate of both pyramidal neurons and interneurons in the downstream region of stimulation. Also, the stimulation eliminated the original theta rhythms (2-5 Hz) in the single-unit activity of the two types of neurons and entrained these neurons to fire at the stimulation rhythm. These results provide new clues for the mechanisms of brain stimulation to suppress the pathological rhythms in the neuronal activity, and for the application of sinusoidal waveforms in brain stimulation therapy.
脑电刺激是一种新兴的治疗方法，可用于治疗广泛的神经疾病。尽管电脉冲在临床上很常用，但其他电波形，如正弦波，也被研究用于提高治疗效果、降低刺激引起的组织损伤风险以及减少电能消耗。然而，正弦刺激对神经元活动的影响仍不清楚。在本研究中，我们研究了在 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠海马 CA1 区神经元传入纤维上施加 50-Hz 正弦波刺激对神经元活动的影响。结果表明，刺激增加了刺激下游区域的锥体神经元和中间神经元的放电率。此外，刺激消除了这两种神经元的单个单元活动中原有的θ节律（2-5 Hz），并使这些神经元以刺激节律放电。这些结果为脑刺激抑制神经元活动中的病理性节律的机制提供了新的线索，也为正弦波形在脑刺激治疗中的应用提供了新的线索。
