Scientists report that they can trigger a hibernation-like state in mice by targeting part of their brain with pulses of ultrasound.
that change shape in response to ultrasonic waves, including the subset of POA cells that controls mouse torpor. To see what effect that had on the animals’ behavior, her team next glued miniature, speakerlike devices on the heads of mice to focus these waves on the POA.
In response to a series of 3.2-megahertz pulses, the rodents’ core body temperatures dropped by about 3°C. The mice cooled off by shifting body heat into their tails—a classic sign of torpor, Bruekelen notes—and their heart rates and metabolisms slowed. By automatically delivering additional pulses of ultrasound when the animals’ body temperatures began to climb back up, the researchers could keep the mice in this torpid state for up to 24 hours.
Breukelen says his confidence in the team’s results is strengthened by the fact that when the researchers directed the ultrasound to other brain regions, the mice didn’t appear to enter a torpid state. That suggests the animals’ reduced metabolism was indeed caused by stimulating specifically the neurons in the POA, and not simply by “scrambling” brain functioning. “I don’t think anyone wants a therapy that relies on simply turning off the brain, and consequences be damned,” he says.
Others aren’t convinced. Shaun Morrison at Oregon Health & Science University doubts the scientists really observed torpor in the mice. Ultrasound stimulation warms up the brain, he says, so it’s possible the researchers were in fact activating temperature-sensitive neurons in that region, causing the animals to lower their body temperatures in response. Even if the effect is real, he’s skeptical that we’ll be using ultrasound to put astronauts into suspended animation anytime soon.
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