Patent Description:
With the gradual increasing number of patients with brain diseases such as depression, Parkinson and epilepsy, the treatment of the brain functional diseases has gradually become the focus of the modern medical research. The key to studying the functional diseases is to determine the cortex in which the lesion is located and the nerve conduction pathway of the deep nucleus. The ultrasonic stimulation increasingly causes attention due to the safety, the non-invasiveness and the effectiveness of the ultrasonic stimulation. Many laboratories in the world are currently conducting research on the ultrasonic animal stimulating neural system.

The focal field of the focused ultrasonic radiation sound field is an oblong shape, which make the focused ultrasonic radiation sound field easier to perform the stimulation with high anatomical accuracy on the neural system. A conscious animal ultrasonic neural stimulation system is provided, to eliminate the influence of the anesthetic drugs on the nervous activity of animals and achieve the neural regulation of the conscious animal. Further relevant technologies are also known from <CIT>, which relates to devices and methods for brain modulation activity. Further relevant technologies are also known from <CIT>, which relates to methods and systems for deep or superficial deep-brain stimulation using multiple therapeutic modalities, <CIT>, which relates to a pulse amplifier for driving ultrasound transducers, and <CIT>, which relates to an ultrasonic matrix array probe with thermally dissipating cable and backing block heat exchange.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device, which can perform accurate ultrasonic stimulation and regulation on the conscious normal animal and model animal (Parkinson, epilepsy, etc.) in a conscious state, and explore and verify the function of the ultrasound on the neural regulation in condition that the animal is in the conscious state. The feature of the conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device according to the present invention are defined in the independent claims. Further improvements are provided in the dependent claims.

In order to achieve the above object, provided is a conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device, including a pulse signal generation module, a transducer module and a fixing module. The pulse signal generation module is configured to generate a pulse signal with high energy. The ultrasonic transducer module is configured to convert the pulse signal into an ultrasound. The fixing module includes an upper fixing module and a lower fixing module. The upper fixing module is configured to fix the ultrasonic transducer module, and the lower fixing module is configured to be fixed on an animal neural regulation target point. The upper fixing module and the lower fixing module are connected by a connecting component.

The pulse signal generation module includes:.

In one embodiment, the two-channel signal generator has a fundamental frequency at least in a range of <NUM> to <NUM>, is configured to independently generate a sinusoidal signal and a square wave signal, and has a TTL gate trigger output function.

In one embodiment, the power amplifier has a frequency band in a range of <NUM> to <NUM>, and a power range of <NUM> W to 150W.

The ultrasonic transducer module includes a leading wire, the piezoelectric array element and a backing. The piezoelectric array element is connected to the leading wire, and the leading wire is connected to the impedance matching circuit of the pulse signal generation module. The backing is made of an epoxy resin material, and provided with a water inlet and an air outlet. The water inlet is configured to inject deionized water.

In one embodiment, the piezoelectric array element is composed of a single array element, has an arc shaped structure capable of reaching a neutral regulation depth, and is configured to focus the ultrasound generated by the piezoelectric array element on an animal brain target point.

In one embodiment, a piezoelectric material of the piezoelectric array element includes a piezoelectric ceramic, a composite piezoelectric material, and a crystalline material.

In one embodiment, the fixing module is a ring shaped structure.

In one embodiment, the fixing module is made of an organic glass material or a plastic.

The advantages of the present embodiment are as follows. In the conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device of the conscious animal of the present disclosure, the single array element piezoelectric ceramic adopts the high power piezoelectric material, and the matched ultrasonic electronic system is supplemented, to perform the accurate ultrasonic stimulation on the cerebral cortex and subcortex of the animal, thereby exploring and verifying the stimulation effect of the ultrasound on the animal, which is easy in operation and convenient in use.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. The present disclosure may be implemented without some or all these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations would not be described in detail in order to not unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure. Even though hereinafter the present disclosure will be described in detail in conjunction with specific embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the present disclosure to the embodiments.

Provided is a conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device, as shown in <FIG>, specifically including a pulse signal generation module <NUM>, a transducer module <NUM> and a fixing module <NUM>.

The above modules and connection relationships thereof are specifically described below. The pulse signal generation module <NUM> is configured to generate a pulse signal with high energy. As shown in <FIG>, the pulse signal generation module <NUM> includes an independent two-channel signal generator <NUM> configured to generate a neural regulation pulse waveform; a power amplifier <NUM> connected with the independent two-channel signal generator <NUM> and configured to increase an energy of the regulation pulse waveform; and an impedance matching circuit <NUM> connected with the power amplifier <NUM> and configured to perform personalization design based on an actual measured impedance value of a piezoelectric array element to realize the impedance matching. The pulse signal generation module <NUM> further includes an oscilloscope <NUM> connected with the independent two-channel signal generator <NUM> and configured to observe an output waveform. The two-channel signal generator 11is configured to generate the ultrasonic neural regulation pulse waveform, as shown in <FIG>. A channel <NUM> in the two channels is configured to control a pulse repetition frequency PRF, a number of pulses NTB, and a pulse period SD, while a channel <NUM> is configured to control a fundamental frequency f, a number of fundamentals TBD and an output voltage AI. The channel <NUM> may choose the external trigging as the trigging manner, and the external triggering source thereof is the TTL signal of the channel <NUM>. The signal of the channel <NUM> is connected to the oscilloscope <NUM> and the power amplifier <NUM> respectively through a three-way BNC wire. The oscilloscope <NUM> is configured to observe the output waveform. The power amplifier <NUM> is configured to increase the energy of the waveform output by the signal generator. The impedance matching circuit <NUM> is configured to perform corresponding design based on the actual measured impedance value of the prepared piezoelectric array element, to ensure that the power amplifier <NUM> and the piezoelectric array element <NUM> can realize <NUM>-ohm impedance matching, and realize that the energy of the power amplifier <NUM> can enter into the transducer module <NUM> without attenuation.

In the present disclosure, the two-channel signal generator <NUM> has the fundamental frequency at least in a range of <NUM> to <NUM>, may independently generate a sinusoidal signal and a square wave signal, and has a TTL gate trigger output function. In operation, the practicability of the present disclosure can be further enhanced by adopting different pulse repetition frequencies, different pulse durations, different fundamental frequencies, different numbers of fundamentals and different numbers of the pulses according to the stimulation site and the stimulation effect. The power amplifier <NUM> has a frequency band in a range of <NUM> to <NUM>, and a power range of <NUM> W to 150W.

The structures and functions of the ultrasonic transducer module <NUM> and the fixing module <NUM> are described in detail below based on <FIG>.

The ultrasonic transducer module <NUM> is configured to convert the pulse signal generated by the pulse signal generation module <NUM> into the ultrasound. As shown in <FIG>, the transducer module <NUM> includes a leading wire <NUM>, a piezoelectric array element <NUM> and a backing <NUM>. The piezoelectric array element <NUM> is connected to the leading wire <NUM>. In one embodiment, the leading wire <NUM> may be welded on the piezoelectric array element <NUM>, and then connected to the impedance matching circuit <NUM>. In another embodiment, the piezoelectric array element <NUM> is connected to a cable (not shown in the drawings) through the leading wire <NUM>. The cable is connected to the impedance matching circuit <NUM> and configured to receive the electrical signal generated by the pulse signal generation module <NUM>. In one embodiment, the cable is selected to be <NUM> ohm.

In one embodiment, the piezoelectric array element <NUM> is composed of a plurality of piezoelectric elements, has an arc shaped structure capable of reaching the neural regulation depth, and is configured to focus the ultrasound generated by the piezoelectric array element on the target point of the animal bran region. Namely, the arc surface of the single array element transducer has the following feature: a focal point caused by the curvature of transducer can overlap the brain target region in focus axial length and longitudinal length. In addition, the realizable focus depth of the piezoelectric array element <NUM> provided by the present embodiment is preferably <NUM>-to-<NUM> greater than the functioning target region, so that the stimulation device prepared is small in size, light in weight, and easy to fixed in the animal brain. In the present disclosure, the piezoelectric material of the piezoelectric array element includes a piezoelectric ceramic, a composite piezoelectric material, and a crystalline material. In another embodiment, in operation, the practicability of the neural regulation device of the present disclosure can be further enhanced by choosing different areas and materials of piezoelectric materials based on the size of the brain stimulation region.

The epoxy resin is chosen for the material of the backing <NUM>, which is poured into the upper fixing module <NUM> in a liquid state, and then solidified to protect the piezoelectric array element <NUM> and fix leading wire <NUM>. The material of the backing <NUM> further needs to reserve a water inlet <NUM> and an air outlet <NUM> for injecting the deionized water. The deionized water is injected into the water inlet <NUM>. The water inlet <NUM> and the air outlet <NUM> are sealed by a sealing film after no air bubble is observed in the fixing module <NUM>. In the present disclosure, the deionized water is used in place of the ultrasonic coupling agent, which ensures that the ultrasound can enter into the brain target region from the piezoelectric array element <NUM> without attenuation.

As shown in <FIG>, the fixing module <NUM> includes an upper fixing module <NUM> and a lower fixing module <NUM>. The upper fixing module <NUM> is configured to fix the ultrasonic transducer module <NUM>. The lower fixing module <NUM> is configured to be fixed with the animal neural regulation target point (animal brain) through the dental cement and skull nail. In one embodiment, an ultrasonic emission path in the ultrasonic neural regulation is determined, the lower fixing module <NUM> is fixed on the skull surface through which the emission path passes, and the upper fixing module <NUM> is screwed by the screw <NUM> (connecting component), so that the piezoelectric array element <NUM> is fixed on the animal brain. In one embodiment of the present disclosure, the upper fixing module <NUM> and the lower fixing module <NUM> adopt a circular ring and a conical cone structure, and plastic or organic glass material. The ultrasonic transducer system is fixed by the upper circular ring, while the lower conical cone is fixed on the animal neural regulation target point.

Claim 1:
A conscious animal ultrasonic neural regulation device, comprising a pulse signal generation module (<NUM>), a transducer module (<NUM>) and a fixing module (<NUM>);
wherein the pulse signal generation module (<NUM>) is configured to generate a pulse signal;
the ultrasonic transducer module (<NUM>) is configured to convert the pulse signal into an ultrasound;
wherein the fixing module (<NUM>) comprises an upper fixing module (<NUM>) and a lower fixing module (<NUM>);
wherein the upper fixing module (<NUM>) is configured to fix the ultrasonic transducer module (<NUM>), and the lower fixing module (<NUM>) is configured to be fixed with an animal neural regulation target point; the upper fixing module (<NUM>) and the lower fixing module (<NUM>) are connected by a connecting component,
wherein the pulse signal generation module (<NUM>) comprises:
an independent two-channel signal generator (<NUM>), configured to generate a neural regulation pulse waveform;
a power amplifier (<NUM>), configured to increase an energy of the regulation pulse waveform; and
an impedance matching circuit (<NUM>), configured to perform personalization design based on an actual measured impedance value of a piezoelectric array element (<NUM>), to realize impedance matching,
wherein the ultrasonic transducer module (<NUM>) comprises a leading wire (<NUM>), the piezoelectric array element (<NUM>) and a backing (<NUM>);
the piezoelectric array element (<NUM>) is connected to the leading wire (<NUM>), and the leading wire (<NUM>) is connected to the impedance matching circuit (<NUM>) of the pulse signal generation module (<NUM>);
the backing (<NUM>) is made of an epoxy resin material, and provided with a water inlet (<NUM>) and an air outlet (<NUM>), the water inlet (<NUM>) is configured to inject deionized water serving as a coupling agent.