Numerical model of vagus nerve electrical stimulation

• Robert Szmurlo ^[1] ; Jacek Starzynski ^[1] ; Stanislaw Wincenciak ^[1] ; Andrzej Rysz ^[2]
  1. [1] Warsaw University of Technology

     Warsaw University of Technology

     Warszawa, Polonia

     
  2. [2] Warsaw Medical School
• Localización: Compel: International journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, ISSN 0332-1649, Vol. 28, Nº Extra 1 (Special Issue: Selected Papers from ISTET 2007), 2009, págs. 211-220
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Purpose – The electric stimulation of the vagus nerve is used to obtain therapeutic results in epilepsy, depression and Alzheimer diseases. The purpose of this paper is to show numerical model of stimulation, focusing on the mathematical approach to modeling a phenomenon of neural cells activation and its propagation in the nerve.

    Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a model based on the bidomain theory. It uses two continuous, averaged domains which depict the intra‐ and extra‐cellular domains and are connected with the membrane ionic currents. The numerical model uses 3D cylindrical model approximating the anatomical shape of the neck. The simulator is based on a time domain finite element method.

    Findings – The presented approach allows to model the discrete behaviour of the membrane potential in the macroscopic, realistic model of the nerve. The validation of the parameters with the velocity of activation propagations suggests the strong disscussion on physical interpretation to the bidomain theory parameters. To obtain realistic results the parameters needed to be unrealistic.

    Originality/value – The paper presents the combination of bidomain model of neural tissue with the time domain finite element method along with the atributes of bidomain model for realistic modeling of the process of propagtion of activation.