title: Nanomaterial-Enabled Neural Stimulation.
abstract: Neural stimulation is a critical technique in treating neurological diseases and investigating brain functions. Traditional electrical stimulation uses electrodes to directly create intervening electric fields in the immediate vicinity of neural tissues. Second-generation stimulation techniques directly use light, magnetic fields or ultrasound in a non-contact manner. An emerging generation of non- or minimally invasive neural stimulation techniques is enabled by nanotechnology to achieve a high spatial resolution and cell-type specificity. In these techniques, a nanomaterial converts a remotely transmitted primary stimulus such as a light, magnetic or ultrasonic signal to a localized secondary stimulus such as an electric field or heat to stimulate neurons. The ease of surface modification and bio-conjugation of nanomaterials facilitates cell-type-specific targeting, designated placement and highly localized membrane activation. This review focuses on nanomaterial-enabled neural stimulation techniques primarily involving opto-electric, opto-thermal, magneto-electric, magneto-thermal and acousto-electric transduction mechanisms. Stimulation techniques based on other possible transduction schemes and general consideration for these emerging neurotechnologies are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Yongchen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State UniversityColumbus, OH, USA; Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State UniversityColumbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
keywords: nanomaterial; nanotechnology; neural stimulation; non-contact; noninvasive