How does electrical stimulation modulate electrophysiological environment after SCI?

An injury potential is the direct current potential difference between the site of spinal cord injury and the healthy nerves. Its initial amplitude is a significant indicator of the severity of spinal cord injury. This injury potential, as well as injury current, can be modulated by direct current field stimulation; however, the appropriate parameters of the electrical field are hard to define. Dr. Guanghao Zhang and colleagues from Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China found that electrical stimulation using a reversed electrical field polarity can effectively modulate the injury potential and benefits the spontaneous repair of the cell membrane in rats with spinal cord injury. Taking the injury potential value as the parameter of the electrical stimulator, a method for de-fining the stimulation intensity is proposed, thus promoting the application of electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury. These results were published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 27, 2013).

Positions of stimulating electrodes and measuring electrodes in the experiment of injury potential modulation.

(Photo Credit: Neural Regeneration Research)

Source: Neural Regeneration Research