Biotechnology

Neuroscience

Biology

Biomedical engineering

Materials science

Modulation (music)

Stimulation

Biochemistry

Acoustics

Biological neural network

In vivo

Laser

Physics

Optics

In vitro

Nanosecond

Neuromodulation

Medicine

Chemistry

Biophysics

Photoacoustic imaging in biomedicine

Matter

<h2>Summary</h2> Neuromodulation is an invaluable approach for the study of neural circuits and clinical treatment of neurological diseases. Here, we report semiconducting polymer nanoparticles based photoacoustic nanotransducers (PANs) for neural stimulation <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>. Our PANs strongly absorb the nanosecond pulsed laser in the near-infrared second window (NIR-II) and generate localized acoustic waves. PANs are shown to be surface modified and selectively bind onto neurons. PAN-mediated activation of primary neurons <i>in vitro</i> is achieved with ten 3-ns laser pulses at 1,030 nm over a 3-ms duration. <i>In vivo</i> neural modulation of mouse brain activities and motor activities is demonstrated by PANs directly injected into brain cortex. With submillimeter spatial resolution and negligible heat deposition, PAN stimulation is a new non-genetic method for precise control of neuronal activities, opening up potentials in non-invasive brain modulation.

Neural Stimulation In Vitro and In Vivo by Photoacoustic Nanotransducers