Journal
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
Volume 19, Issue 6, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/acab30
Keywords
temporal interference stimulation; transcranial alternating current stimulation; kilohertz stimulation; computational simulation; neuron model
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health of the United States of America [R01NS088674, R01NS117405]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This study simulated the electric field and neural response characteristics of temporal interference stimulation (TIS) and found that TIS has similar activation thresholds to high-frequency stimulation but is more effective at block. The suprathreshold effects of TIS may involve neural activity block and periodic activation or onset response.
Objective. Temporal interference stimulation (TIS) was proposed as a non-invasive, focal, and steerable deep brain stimulation method. However, the mechanisms underlying experimentally-observed suprathreshold TIS effects are unknown, and prior simulation studies had limitations in the representations of the TIS electric field (E-field) and cerebral neurons. We examined the E-field and neural response characteristics for TIS and related transcranial alternating current stimulation modalities. Approach. Using the uniform-field approximation, we simulated a range of stimulation parameters in biophysically realistic model cortical neurons, including different orientations, frequencies, amplitude ratios, amplitude modulation, and phase difference of the E-fields, and obtained thresholds for both activation and conduction block. Main results. For two E-fields with similar amplitudes (representative of E-field distributions at the target region), TIS generated an amplitude-modulated (AM) total E-field. Due to the phase difference of the individual E-fields, the total TIS E-field vector also exhibited rotation where the orientations of the two E-fields were not aligned (generally also at the target region). TIS activation thresholds (75-230 V m(-1)) were similar to those of high-frequency stimulation with or without modulation and/or rotation. For E-field dominated by the high-frequency carrier and with minimal amplitude modulation and/or rotation (typically outside the target region), TIS was less effective at activation and more effective at block. Unlike AM high-frequency stimulation, TIS generated conduction block with some orientations and amplitude ratios of individual E-fields at very high amplitudes of the total E-field (>1700 V m(-1)). Significance. The complex 3D properties of the TIS E-fields should be accounted for in computational and experimental studies. The mechanisms of suprathreshold cortical TIS appear to involve neural activity block and periodic activation or onset response, consistent with computational studies of peripheral axons. These phenomena occur at E-field strengths too high to be delivered tolerably through scalp electrodes and may inhibit endogenous activity in off-target regions, suggesting limited significance of suprathreshold TIS.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available