Method and apparatus of modulating a neuronal firing frequency at a brain functional site in a brain

An apparatus for modulating a neuronal firing frequency at a brain sleep promoting site, the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus (VLPO), the apparatus comprising a signal generation module and an antenna connected to the signal generation module, wherein

• the signal generation module is configured to generate an electrical signal with its power modulated with a preset modulating frequency in a burst format, and send the electrical signal to the antenna;
• the antenna is configured to receive the modulated electrical signal from the signal generation module and generate an electromagnetic field having a power varying at the preset modulating frequency based on the electrical signal;
• wherein the apparatus is configured to perform following operations of:
• modulating, with the generated electromagnetic field at the preset modulating frequency, the brain sleep promoting site placed within a near field of the generated electromagnetic field, to polarize extracellular fluid at the brain sleep promoting site with the power of the electromagnetic field, such that a polarization density of the extracellular fluid varies at the preset modulating frequency and neurons in the extracellular fluid are modulated to fire at the preset modulating frequency, and to transition the brain from a wake mode to a sleep mode, wherein modulating the brain sleep promoting site facilitates the brain's glymphatic system removal of neuronal waste being the amyloid beta generated during the wake mode;
• and
• modulating the brain sleep promoting site with the generated electromagnetic field at the preset modulating frequency to further transition the brain to a rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stage,
• wherein the near field of the generated electromagnetic field satisfies the condition of
• 0
• <
• d
• ≤
• 0.62
• *
• D
• 3
• λ
• ,
• wherein d represents a distance from the antenna to an edge of the near field where the near field ends, D represents a largest dimension of the antenna, and λ represents the wavelength of the generated electromagnetic field in vacuum.