Magnetic stimulation of subthalamic nucleus neurons using micro-coils for deep brain stimulation

Recently micro-magnetic stimulation (μMS) with sub-millimeter coils has been successfully used to stimulate retinal neurons in vitro. This raises the possibility that such coils could be used in a wide range of neural prosthetics, as they may provide a safer alternative to direct electrical stimulation. However, the ability of μMS to modulate the neuronal activity of brain neurons has not been studied. Here we show that μMS strongly modulates the neural activity of subthalamic nucleus (STN) neurons in vitro. Cell attached patch clamp was used to record neural activity in response to both pulsatile and sinusoidal waveforms. Pulsatile stimulation was not very effective but continuous presentation of low-frequency (500Hz) sinusoidal bursts of μMS silenced STN neurons. This work supports further investigation of μMS as an alternative to existing electrically-based DBS systems.