Ultrasonic local anesthetic uncaging enables noninvasive, targeted, and transient knock-out of brain function

Ultrasonic uncaging of SonoRopi in mouse primary visual cortex suppresses visually evoked cortical activity for one hour after intravenous delivery and transcranial focused ultrasound.

• Why it matters: Spatially localized, noninvasive brain inhibition is needed for precise circuit interrogation and mapping, but existing approaches lack targeted, reversible control.
• What they did: Mice received intravenous SonoRopi, then transcranial focused ultrasound was applied to uncage ropivacaine locally; visually evoked cortical activity was measured, with off-target sonication as control.
• The result: Local uncaging produced transient functional suppression for one hour without acute histologic injury or open-field behavioral abnormalities, supporting reversible, targeted brain inhibition in rodents.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.