Transcranial Ultrasound Stimulation Improves Memory Performance of Parkinsonian Mice

Cognitive impairment is one of the most common non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Previous studies have demonstrated that low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation can significantly suppress the motor symptoms of PD. However, whether ultrasound stimulation can improve cognitive ability in PD and the related neural oscillation mechanism remain unclear to date. To evaluate the effect of ultrasound stimulation on memory ability in PD and explore its neural oscillation mechanism. Ultrasonography was used for 7-day stimulation of the CA1 in transgenic mice with PD. The working memory ability of the PD mice was then tested using novel object discrimination, and the local field potential and spikes in the mice CA1 were recorded at the same time as in the behavioral test. We found that ultrasound stimulation of the PD mice CA1 for 4 days: 1) significantly increased their learning and memory ability, although the learning and memory ability on the 7th day after the stimulation stopped was not significantly different from that before stimulation (P>0.05); 2) significantly increased the relative power of theta, low gamma, and high gamma frequency bands of the local field potential, and the phase amplitude coupling strength between theta and low gamma and between theta and high gamma; and 3) modulated the phase-locking angle between the spike of interneuron and theta wave to a 180°-360° rise cycle. Transcranial ultrasound stimulation can improve the learning and memory abilities of PD mice, and evoking neural oscillations in the CA1 is the potential mechanism.