Miniaturized Cortex Cooling Device and System for Hypothermia Therapy Application on Freely Moving Rat

Abstract

This paper presents a miniaturized brain cortex cooling device and system using thermoelectric (TE) cooler for hypothermia therapy application on freely moving rat. Two type of cooling electrodes including planar and micro-needle structures are fabricated and studied by EEG recording. Comparing to prior arts, our approach can be applied under freely moving behavior. The cooling temperature is designed as 2 degrees C to avoid permanent injury in brain. Packaged planar or needle electrode with TE cooler consumes only 2x2mm2. EEG recording electrodes and thermocouple are implanted for observation as well. Simulation result shows that TE-cooler with needle type electrode behaves deeper effective cooling depth and faster cooling response in rodent cortex range (similar to 2mm deep). Long term EEG monitoring on freely moving rat also presents no extra side effects with continuously cooling.