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. 2024 Feb 7:18:1313639.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1313639. eCollection 2024.

Transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation improves spatial memory and modulates hippocampal neural oscillations in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Shuai Zhang  1   2   3 , Zhongsheng Guo  1   2   3 , Yihao Xu  2   3 , Jinrui Mi  2   3 , Jun Liu  2   3 , Zichun Li  2   3 , Xiaofeng Xie  2   3 , Guizhi Xu  1   2   3
Affiliations

Transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation improves spatial memory and modulates hippocampal neural oscillations in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease

Shuai Zhang et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

Introduction: In our study, we applied transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation (TMAS), a technique based on focused ultrasound stimulation within a static magnetic field, in the APP/PS1 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to explore the feasibility of TMAS on improving AD related spatial memory deficits and abnormal neural oscillations.

Methods: The mice treated with TMAS once daily for 21 days. We recorded local field potential signals in the hippocampal CA1 region of the mice after TMAS treatment with in-vivo electrophysiology and evaluated the neural rehabilitative effect of TMAS with sharp-wave ripple (SWR), gamma oscillations during SWRs, and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC). The spatial memory function of the mice was examined by the Morris water maze (MWM) task.

Results: We found that TMAS improved the performance of MWM related spatial cognitive functions compared with AD group. Furthermore, our results implied that TMAS alleviated abnormalities in hippocampal SWRs, increased slow gamma power during SWRs, and promoted theta-slow gamma phase-amplitude coupling. These findings suggest that TMAS could have a positive influence on spatial memory through the modulation of neural oscillations.

Discussion: This work emphasizes the potential of TMAS to serve as a non-invasive method for Alzheimer's disease rehabilitation and promote the application of TMAS for the treatment of more neurological and brain aging diseases in the future.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; local field potentials; neural oscillations; neuromodulation; transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Diagram of transcranial magneto-acoustic stimulation system.
Figure 2
Figure 2
MWM training and test results. (A) Escape latencies during visible platform day. (B) Swimming speeds during visible platform day. (C) Swimming speeds during hidden platform days. (D) Escape latencies during hidden platform days. (E) Platform crossover number during probe day. (F) Percentage of duration spent in the target quadrant. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Characteristics of SWRs. (A) Representative traces of band-pass filtered SWRs (150 Hz−250 Hz). (B) Frequency distribution of SWR durations. (C) SWR durations (median with 95% confidence interval). (D) Average incidence rate of SWRs. (E) Power spectral density of LFPs. The values are presented as mean ± SEM unless otherwise specified; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Slow gamma rhythm during SWRs. (A) Representative SWR-triggered spectrogram. (B) Illustrative trace of slow gamma bandpass filtered signals (30 Hz−50 Hz) during SWRs. (C) Representative triggered spectrograms during SWRs for different groups of mice. (D) Average SG Z-scores power during SWRs. The values are presented as mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Phase amplitude coupling of hippocampal neural oscillations. (A) Example of Phase amplitude coupling of the theta and gamma bands. (B) Example of distribution of theta phase and slow gamma amplitude. (C) Average modulation index of theta-slow gamma PAC. The values are presented as mean ± SEM; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.
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