The ImPULS device contains ultrasound transducers and electrodes (gold) encapsulated within a polymer. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers MIT ’s implantable ImPULS device could become an alternative to the electrodes now used to treat Parkinson’s and other diseases. MIT engineers developed a hair-thin ultrasound device that offers a potential breakthrough in treating neurological disorders by providing precise, minimally invasive deep brain stimulation.
This technology, known as ImPULS, could replace traditional electrode-based methods, promising reduced tissue damage and increased efficacy. Deep brain stimulation, by implanted electrodes that deliver electrical pulses to the brain, is often used to treat Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders. However, the electrodes used for this treatment can eventually corrode and accumulate scar tissue, requiring them to be removed.
MIT researchers have now developed an alternative approach that uses ultrasound instead of electricity to perform deep brain stimulation, delivered by a fiber about the thickness of a human hair. In a study of mice, they showed that this stimulation can trigger neurons to release dopamine, in a part of the brain that is often targeted in patients with Parkinson’s disease. “By using ultrasonography, we can create a new way of stimulating neurons to fire in the deep brain,” says Canan Dagdeviren, an associate professor in the MIT Media Lab and the senior author of the new study.
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