Simulation of the influence of tissue inhomogeneity on nerve excitation elicited by magnetic stimulation

Author

Liu, R. ; Ueno, S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Biomed. Eng., Tokyo Univ., Japan

Volume

6

fYear

1998

fDate

29 Oct-1 Nov 1998

Firstpage

2998

Abstract

The influence of tissue inhomogeneity on nerve excitation elicited by magnetic stimulation is investigated. The spatial distributions of gradient of induced electric fields, i.e., activating function, for nerve excitation elicited by magnetic stimulation are calculated in homogeneous and inhomogeneous volume conductor models. The computer simulation shows that the interface between conductors of different conductivities appears to affect markedly the nerve excitation elicited by magnetic stimulation. Our simulation study explains well the phenomenon that the median nerve bundle in the elbow is easily stimulated by magnetic stimulation even when the induced electric currents flow in the direction perpendicular to the nerve bundle

Keywords

biomagnetism; neurophysiology; physiological models; Laplace equation; activating function; computer simulation; elbow; figure-eight coil; gradient of induced electric fields; homogeneous volume conductor model; inhomogeneous volume conductor models; interface between conductors; magnetic stimulation; median nerve bundle; nerve excitation; spatial distributions; tissue inhomogeneity; virtual cathode; Cathodes; Coils; Conductivity; Conductors; Current; Elbow; Magnetic stimulation; Medical simulation; Nerve fibers; Nonuniform electric fields;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1998. Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Hong Kong

ISSN

1094-687X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5164-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.1998.746121

Filename

746121