Biophysical neural models

Modeling physiological tissue responses to external stimuli in neural engineering is an evolving field, particularly for treatments targeting spinal circuit modulation. Our work introduces novel methods and standards, focusing on accurately representing axons in the dorsal and ventral roots, dorsal column, and peripheral nerves using multi-compartment cable models. For numerical simulations, we utilize variants of the state-of-the-art MRG model. However, there is still a need for validated multi-compartment models for spinal neuromodulation. A fully validated model that accurately represents histological and biophysical axon distributions has yet to be established, which is further complicated by limited histological data on human populations.

Numerical simulations of the interactions between physical stimuli especially electric fields and different axons not only help us identify the stimulation threshold required to activate each fiber, but also help us identify where along the fiber the activation occurs, gaining more insight on the response latency caused by the stimulus as well as the heterogeniety of responses along different fiber trajectories, different fiber types and different fiber diameters.