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What鈥檚 this mouse brain thinking? (Image: UCL CABI/SPL)
ELECTRICITY is the brain鈥檚 language, and now we can speak to it without wires or implants. Nanoparticles can be used to stimulate regions of the brain electrically, opening up novel ways to treat brain diseases.
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When magneto-electric nanoparticles are subjected to an external magnetic field, they produce an electric field. If such nanoparticles are placed next to neurons, this electric field should allow them to communicate.
To find out, Sakhrat Khizroev of Florida International University in Miami and his team inserted 20 billion of these nanoparticles into the brains of mice. They then switched on a magnetic field. An electroencephalogram showed that the brain region surrounded by nanoparticles lit up, stimulated by the electric field that had been generated (Future Medicine, ).
鈥淭he electric field can directly couple to the electric circuitry of the neural network,鈥� says Khizroev.
By using different types of magnetic field, the nanoparticles could be tuned to release drugs at specific locations in the brain. Khizroev hopes to build a system that can image brain activity and precisely target medical treatments.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚njected nanoparticles talk to the brain鈥�