Transcranial ultrasound stimulation modulates neural activity of paraventricular thalamus and prefrontal cortex in the propofol-anesthetized mice.

Objective.Transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) has been reported to modulate neural activity and accelerate the recovery of consciousness (ROC) in the propofol-anesthetized mice. Both the thalamus and frontal cortex play critical roles in anesthetic-induced transition of consciousness (TOC).Approach.Twenty-one male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into the Sham group (n= 7), the TUS1 group (n= 7) and the TUS2 group (n= 7). The thalamus of mice in the two TUS groups were subjected to TUS before or after anesthesia, respectively. Local field potentials of paraventricular thalamus (PVT) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) were recorded using electrophysiological techniques. The relative change of mean absolute power and relative power in different frequency bands for each brain region were calculated and analyzed for correlation.Main results.Compared to the Sham group (33.14 ± 0.46 min), the time of ROC was shorter in both the TUS1 group (19.86 ± 0.59 min) and TUS2 group (17.86 ± 0.86 min). Besides, the results showed that TUS could directly induce neural activity in the PVT and indirectly in the PFC in the [60-100 Hz] frequency band. Furthermore, we also found that there were higher pearson correlation coefficients of neural activity between PVT and PFC in the [8-13 Hz] frequency band under TUS (P< 0.05).Significance.Both the PVT and PFC contribute to TOC in propofol-anesthetized mice, and they can be effectively modulated by TUS, which may provide a guidance for the modulation of consciousness in clinical anesthesia.