Hibernation induced with ultrasound – Apparata

A new method has been discovered to artificially induce a kind of hibernation using ultrasound. In mice and rats, but this could also work in humans.

Temporary hibernation by ultrasound

The researchers used a kind of helmet that they stuck over the head of the mouse. This helmet contained a speaker that accurately projected the ultrasound into the small brain of the mouse. The team of researchers aimed the sound waves at the preoptic area of ​​the hypothalamus, an area of ​​the brain that regulates sleep and body temperature in many mammals, including us. And, very importantly, it regulates hibernation in animal species that hibernate.

After the mice were exposed to the bursts of ultrasound, they immediately went into torpor. Their body temperature gradually dropped to about four degrees below normal temperature. This gradually recovered when the ultrasound stopped. With a renewed dose of ultrasound, the mice went into torpor again. This effect also occurred in rats, but the drop in body temperature was less, at around two degrees.

The team of researchers found that the reason ultrasound sent the mice into torpor had to do with its effect on a so-called ion channel in brain cells. That is a channel through which the charged particles can travel.

Torpor saves energy

How do you survive the cold winter, when there is no food? Some animal species, including humans, then have to ensure that they get a warm coat, a large food supply or some thick layers of body fat. But there are also animals that go into hibernation. The body temperature drops considerably, sometimes even just above freezing point, and they fall into a kind of sleeping state. They then breathe once every ten minutes and the heart beats only a few times per minute, instead of a hundred times. As a result, their energy consumption is much lower.

It is also possible to induce this sleep state in organisms that do not hibernate naturally. The scientific term for this unnatural hibernation in other organisms is torpor.

Why hibernation is useful

There are many conceivable circumstances in which it is useful if people can be put into hibernation. Think, for example, of long journeys from one planet to another. If people can then be put into an artificial hibernation, much less oxygen and food will be needed. And that of course saves a lot of weight, and the astronauts don’t have to get bored either.

But an artificial hibernation is also useful closer to home. Consider, for example, patients with a serious injury. If they can be temporarily hibernated, their health will deteriorate less quickly and medical personnel will have more time to save their lives and evacuate them.

Hibernation and torpor: still much misunderstood

At this point, science still doesn’t fully understand what directly causes hibernation and torpor. Naturally occurring hibernation is known to cause other hormonal and biochemical changes as well.

Also, some laboratory studies seem to indicate that amnesia occurs in hibernating animals. That is of course an effect that we do not want to have on humans. That is why researchers in one field are urging that people be cautious for the time being with experiments on humans. Because an astronaut who has forgotten during hibernation why he landed on a certain planet is of course not much use.

You can read the research here.