School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Nat Neurosci. 2023 Nov;26(11):1994-2004. doi: 10.1038/s41593-023-01456-8. Epub 2023 Oct 19.
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) via implanted electrodes is used worldwide to treat patients with severe neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, its invasiveness precludes widespread clinical use and deployment in research. Temporal interference (TI) is a strategy for non-invasive steerable DBS using multiple kHz-range electric fields with a difference frequency within the range of neural activity. Here we report the validation of the non-invasive DBS concept in humans. We used electric field modeling and measurements in a human cadaver to verify that the locus of the transcranial TI stimulation can be steerably focused in the hippocampus with minimal exposure to the overlying cortex. We then used functional magnetic resonance imaging and behavioral experiments to show that TI stimulation can focally modulate hippocampal activity and enhance the accuracy of episodic memories in healthy humans. Our results demonstrate targeted, non-invasive electrical stimulation of deep structures in the human brain.
深部脑刺激（DBS）通过植入电极在全球范围内用于治疗严重的神经和精神疾病患者。然而，其侵入性阻碍了其在研究中的广泛临床应用和部署。时间干扰（TI）是一种使用具有神经活动范围内的差频的多个 kHz 范围电场的非侵入性可控制 DBS 策略。在这里，我们报告了在人类中验证非侵入性 DBS 概念。我们使用人体尸体中的电场建模和测量来验证可以使用最小的皮层暴露来可控制地将颅外 TI 刺激的轨迹聚焦在海马体中。然后，我们使用功能磁共振成像和行为实验表明，TI 刺激可以聚焦调节海马体活动并提高健康人类的情景记忆准确性。我们的结果证明了对人脑深部结构的靶向、非侵入性电刺激。
