New Technique Uses Sound Waves to Control Brain Cells

Scientists from the Salk Institute created a new tool called sonogenetics that uses ultrasonic sound to activate brain cells.

Results from this study were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

The Salk Institute’s announcement about the project explained these are the same type of sound waves found in medical sonograms.

A species of nematodes called Caenorhabditis elegans with genetically engineered nervous systems were used as test subjects in this experiment.

Sreekath Chalasani, a researcher at the Salk Institute, “genetically modified the worms so that some of their motor neurons carried TRP-4 ion channels,” writes The Guardian.

TRP-4 ion channels are housed within the membranes of the nematodes’ cells. The sound waves caused these channels to open up and activate the various cells that are attached to the membrane.

The researchers used microbubbles to amplify the sound being sent into the worms’ ion channels, which ended up activating the worms’ motor neurons changing the direction the creature is moving.

Chalasani told The Guardian the hope is that this procedure could one day potentially replace deep brain stimulation. You can watch the sonogenetics technique in action, below.