Suppression of Subthalamic Nucleus Activity by Micromagnetic Stimulation

Abstract

Magnetic stimulation delivered via 0.5-mm diameter coils was recently shown to activate retinal neurons; the small coil size raises the possibility that micromagnetic stimulation (mu MS) could underlie a new generation of implanted neural prosthetics. Such an approach has several inherent advantages over conventional electric stimulation, including the potential for selective activation of neuronal targets as well as less susceptibility to inflammatory responses. The viability of mu MS for some applications, e.g., deep brain stimulation (DBS), may require suppression (rather than creation) of neuronal activity, however, and therefore we explore here whether (mu MS) could, in fact, suppress activity. While single pulses elicited weak and inconsistent spiking in neurons of the mouse subthalamic nucleus (in vitro), repetitive stimulation effectively suppressed activity in similar to 70% of targeted neurons. This is the same percentage suppressed by conventional electric stimulation; with both modalities, suppression occurred only after an initial increase in spiking. The latency to the onset of suppression was inversely correlated to the energy of the stimulus waveform: larger amplitudes and lower frequencies had the fastest onset of suppression. These findings continue to support the viability of mu MS as a next-generation implantable neural prosthetic.