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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Sep 21.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Biomed Eng. 2022 Mar 21;6(6):754–770. doi: 10.1038/s41551-022-00862-w

Fig. 5 |. Through-scalp NIR-II stimulation of a deep-brain region.

Fig. 5 |

a, Schematic showing through-scalp NIR-II activation of VTA dopaminergic neurons (located ca. 6 mm underneath the scalp surface) that ectopically express TRPV1 via the sensitization of MINDS (red dots). b, Schematics illustrating the process of the specific transduction of dopaminergic neurons with TRPV1 (green dots, left), injection of MINDS (red dots, middle, where the green haze indicates neural tissue transduced with TRPV1), and distant NIR-II illumination for neural modulation through the scalp (right). c, Photograph showing the setup of a Y-maze for contextual conditioning test. d, Representative post-test heat maps showing the time of travel of mice under different experimental conditions. Red dashed squares indicate NIR-II irradiated regions. e, Statistical analysis of time spent in the NIR-II illuminated region (left) and preference score (right) for different TRPV1/MINDS combinations in the VTA. (One-way ANOVA, left: F(1,6) = 9.29, P = 0.023; F(1,6) = 1.69, P = 0.24; F(1,10) = 0.02, P = 0.88; F(1,6) = 0.03, P = 0.86; right: F(3,14) = 13.35, P = 0.00022; F(2,11) = 0.36, P = 0.71.) f, Statistical analysis of the normalized time spent in the NIR-II illuminated region (left) and the normalized preference score (right) for different TRPV1/MINDS combinations in the VTA. (One-way ANOVA, left: F(1,6) = 36.67, P = 0.00092; F(1,6) = 1.07, P = 0.34; F(1,10) = 0.32, P = 0.59; F(1,6) = 1.57, P = 0.26; right: F(3,14) = 9.93, P = 0.00091; F(2,11) = 0.25, P = 0.78.) See Methods for the definitions of preference score, normalized time in the active region and normalized preference score. In the left panels of both e and f, the centre lines, lower bound, upper bound, and whiskers indicate the mean, 25th percentile, 75th percentile, and ±1 SD, respectively. In the right panels of e and f, data are presented as mean values +/− SD. n = 6 mice for TRPV1–/MINDS+ and n = 4 mice for all other groups, with data points shown for each animal. (P ≥ 0.05 (N.S.), *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001.)