Electricity is
the brain's 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 new ways to treat brain diseases. It may even one day allow the
routine exchange of data between computers and the brain. A material discovered
in 2004 makes this possible. When magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENs) are
stimulated by 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.
Researchers of
Florida International University inserted 20 billion of these nanoparticles
into the brains of mice. They then switched on a magnetic field, aiming it at
the clump of nanoparticles to induce an electric field. An electroencephalogram
showed that the region surrounded by nanoparticles lit up, stimulated by this
electric field that had been generated. Their goal is to build a system that
can both image brain activity and precisely target medical treatments at the
same time. Since the nanoparticles respond differently to different frequencies
of magnetic field, they can be tuned to release drugs.
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