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Published in:
2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Anatomically Realistic Computational Model to Assess the Specificity of Epidural Electrical Stimulation of the Cervical Spinal Cord
Authors : Nathan Greiner, Marco Capogrosso
Published in: Converging Clinical and Engineering Research on Neurorehabilitation III
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) disrupts the communication between the brain and spinal sensorimotor circuits below the lesion, leading to paralysis. Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) applied dorsally to the spinal cord modulates the activity of spared spinal circuits by supplying excitatory inputs via the direct recruitment of large myelinated afferent fibers running in posterior spinal roots. EES applied at the cervical level could promote upper-limb function after SCI, but its ability to engage specific arm and hand muscles remains largely unknown. Here we developed an anatomically realistic computational model to evaluate the influence of electrode positioning on the recruitment of cervical afferent fibers. Our results show that laterally-positioned electrode active sites recruit specific dorsal roots with higher selectivity than centrally-positioned active sites, opening a development path for efficient epidural electrode arrays tailored to the cervical cord.