Single-Cell Photothermal Neuromodulation for Functional Mapping of Neural Networks

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Abstract
Photothermal neuromodulation is one of the emerging technologies being developed for neuroscience studies because it can provide minimal-invasive control of neural activity in the deep brain with sub-millimeter precision. However, single cell modulation without genetic modification still remains a challenge, hindering its path to the broad application. Here, we introduce a nanoplasmonic approach to inhibit single neural activity with high temporal resolution. Low intensity of near infrared (NIR) was focused at single cell size on gold nanorod (GNR) integrated microelectrode array platform, generating photothermal effect underneath a target neuron for photothermal stimulation. We found that the photothermal stimulation modulates the spontaneous activity of a target neuron in an inhibitory manner. Single neuron inhibition was fast and highly reliable without thermal damage, and it can induce changes in network firing patterns, potentially suggesting their application for in vivo circuit modulation and functional connectomes.
Funding Information
  • National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF- 2017R1E1A1A01074847, NRF-2015R1A2A1A09003605, NRF-2018R1A2A1A05022604)

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