Transcranial ultrasound stimulation modulates neural activity of paraventricular thalamus and prefrontal cortex in the propofol-anesthetized mice.
Journal of neural engineering June 9, 2025 Guangying Cui, Yi Yuan, Qiaoxuan Wang et al.
Ultrasound stimulation applied to the thalamus before or after propofol anesthesia shortened the time to recovery of consciousness in mice. Mice receiving stimulation before anesthesia regained consciousness in about 20 minutes, and those stimulated after anesthesia in about 18 minutes, compared to about 33 minutes for sham-treated mice. The stimulation directly activated neural activity in the paraventricular thalamus and indirectly in the prefrontal cortex in the 60-100 Hz frequency band. Higher correlations in neural activity between these two brain regions were observed in the 8-13 Hz band, suggesting that both structures contribute to the transition of consciousness and can be modulated by transcranial ultrasound.