Numerical model of vagus nerve electrical stimulation

Abstract

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.

Citation

Szmurlo, R., Starzynski, J., Wincenciak, S. and Rysz, A. (2009), "Numerical model of vagus nerve electrical stimulation", COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 211-220. https://doi.org/10.1108/03321640910919002