Back

Blood-Mediated Opto-Acoustic Stimulation of Brain Cortex at Sub-millimeter Precision

Chen, G.; Li, M.; Thunemann, M.; Kilic, K.; Gong, X.; Marar, C.; Zheng, N.; Sun, D.; Li, Y.; Chen, F.; Zeng, H.; Cheng, J.-X.; Yang, C.

2026-08-07 bioengineering
10.64898/2026.08.06.743316 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Direct modulation of neural activity with high spatiotemporal precision is a cornerstone in experimental neuroscience. Here, we present a blood-mediated optoacoustic stimulation (BOAS) approach that utilizes blood as an endogenous transducer for brain stimulation. By delivering 532-nm nanosecond pulsed laser to the cortex, we demonstrate that the absorption of hemoglobin generates sufficient acoustic pressure to trigger neuronal activity. By integrating BOAS with calcium imaging in GCaMP6f-expressing mice, localized neuronal responses were observed. Quantitative analysis reveals that BOAS produces responses comparable to natural visual stimulation and is significantly more efficient than the photothermal stimulation. Furthermore, we show that the response is dose-dependent. At high energy doses, BOAS induces cortical spreading depression. Histological evaluation confirmed that the brain maintains tissue integrity even under these stimulation parameters. Together, this work establishes a versatile method for precise brain stimulation as an alternative method for stimulating neuron at cortex.

Matching journals

The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
Nature Communications
○ 5641 papers in training set
Top 11%
16.8%
Similar papers in this journal
2
Advanced Science
○ 286 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
14.9%
Similar papers in this journal
3
Scientific Reports
○ 3612 papers in training set
Top 11%
6.6%
Similar papers in this journal
4
Brain Stimulation
○ 125 papers in training set
Top 0.3%
6.2%
Similar papers in this journal
5
Science Advances
● 1243 papers in training set
Top 5%
5.4%
Similar papers in this journal
6
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
● 2444 papers in training set
Top 10%
5.1%
50% of probability mass above
7
Communications Biology
○ 993 papers in training set
Top 6%
3.2%
8
Journal of Neural Engineering
○ 221 papers in training set
Top 1.0%
3.2%
9
Advanced Functional Materials
○ 46 papers in training set
Top 0.5%
2.6%
10
Nano Letters
● 71 papers in training set
Top 0.5%
2.6%
11
Biomedical Optics Express
● 95 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
2.4%
12
Neurophotonics
● 42 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
2.4%
13
iScience
○ 1154 papers in training set
Top 16%
1.9%
14
Nature Biomedical Engineering
○ 47 papers in training set
Top 0.7%
1.9%
15
eLife
● 5828 papers in training set
Top 54%
1.5%
16
Small Methods
○ 29 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
1.3%
17
Nature Biotechnology
○ 172 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.3%
18
Photoacoustics
○ 12 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
1.1%
19
Light: Science & Applications
○ 16 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
1.1%
20
Nature Photonics
○ 10 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
1.1%
21
Nature Methods
○ 385 papers in training set
Top 6%
1.0%
22
ACS Nano
● 113 papers in training set
Top 2%
1.0%
23
ACS Photonics
● 13 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
1.0%
24
Advanced Intelligent Systems
○ 11 papers in training set
Top 0.3%
0.8%
25
Journal of Controlled Release
○ 44 papers in training set
Top 0.7%
0.8%
26
Science
● 477 papers in training set
Top 10%
0.6%
27
EMBO Reports
○ 263 papers in training set
Top 8%
0.6%
28
PLOS ONE
● 5266 papers in training set
Top 63%
0.6%
29
Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology
○ 98 papers in training set
Top 3%
0.6%

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.