Neural Engineering Center Seminar: In person in Wickenden 321
Speaker: Margaux Randolph
Advisor: Prof. D. Tyler
Abstract:
Peripheral nerve stimulation has a range of clinical applications including sensory restoration, the treatment of chronic pain, and autonomic neuromodulation. In each application, the therapeutic benefit of the peripheral nerve stimulation relies on the selectivity of the interface. Selectivity refers to the interface’s capability to activate specific axonal populations while avoiding the activation of others. Current approaches achieve high levels of selectivity by either placing electrical contacts intrafascicularly, i.e. by penetration of the perineurial membrane, or by reshaping nerves with electrodes wrapped around the outside of the nerve. Both approaches require surgical procedures, under general anesthesia with circum-neural dissection. In addition, while intrafascicular electrodes may offer marginal additional selectivity over extraneural approaches, they disrupt the perineurium and have been shown to have a detrimental effect on chronic nerve health. Conversely, the efficacy of reshaping electrodes decreases as the size and number of fascicles in the nerve increases.
The capability of an approach between intrafascicular electrodes and reshaping electrodes remains largely unexplored. Interfascicular electrodes are placed within the nerve, between the fascicles while keeping the protective perineurium intact. This talk will discuss the progress thus far in the development of the interfascicular peripheral nerve interface from benchtop to chronic implantation in a porcine model. We hypothesize that interfascicular stimulation is feasible and highly selective. Further, an interfascicular approach has a significant advantage in that this electrode configuration may lend itself to minimally invasive, non-surgical placement which will be discussed as a future direction.