The cooling of brain tissue has been recognized to effectively suppress epileptiform discharges (EDs) and local brain cooling using a thermoelectric device has recently gained much attention since it has a potential to be a viable alternative for a surgical resection of epileptogenic foci. However, when considering implantable systems, several problems such as the electric power supply or the arrangement of the whole system in the body have to be resolved. Then, the authors devised a new cooling device with a heat pipe attached to the thermo-electric chip and also examined the performance of this device through the experiments using a phantom and animal studies. The results indicate the proposed device has enough cooling performance to suppress EDs.
