Theoretical Study on Gold Nanorod-Enhanced Near-Infrared Neural Stimulation

Over the past decade, optical methods have emerged for modulating brain functions as an alternative to electrical stimulations. Among various optical techniques, infrared neural stimulation (INS) has been effective via a thermal mechanism enabling focused and noninvasive stimulation without any genetic manipulation, but it results in bulk heating of neural tissue. Recently, it has been shown that neural cells can be activated more efficiently by pulsed near-infrared (NIR) light delivered to gold nanorods (GNRs) near the neural cells.

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