| Interfacing with the peripheral nervous system via stimulating neurotechnologies has allowed for therapies which can restore sensorimotor and autonomic function previously lost to injury or disease. Magnetic stimulation (MS) is one such technology that may provide a path to developing new neuroprosthetic devices which advance the state of the art of rehabilitation. Recently, micro-scale copper solenoid coils have been used to effectively stimulate tissue in the central nervous system using mJ energies, addressing the two most pressing issues with MS: stimulating coil size, which were previously in the cm-scale range, and heat development in the coil due to the large energy requirements, which were in the 50 J range.;The primary motivations for using MS rather than functional electrical stimulation (FES) are that MS does not require direct electrical contact to neural tissue and that biological tissue is uniformly permeable to magnetic fields. These advantages imply there will be no accumulation of potentially damaging byproducts at the electrode- electrolyte interface, and there is less need to develop complex multisite, current- steering stimulation protocols to evoke localized neural activity, respectively. With the stimulator size and energy requirements addressed in the central nervous system, there is a clear path forward to develop new neuroprosthetic devices. In this work, we propose to translate these MS results observed in the central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system to provide an effective neurostimulation modality as a viable alternative to FES.;We propose the following approaches to achieve this goal: First, we will develop and validate a multiresolution, heterogeneous simulation model of peripheral magnetic neurostimulation allowing optimization of stimulator and coil designs. Next, we will reduce energy requirements for peripheral magnetic stimulation by using cm- and mm-scale stimulating coils abutted against the nerve. Finally, we will further reduce energy requirements for peripheral magnetic stimulation by controlling the flow of stimulating current. Such a small, low energy magnetic stimulator, developed as a result of achieving these aims, would allow clinical providers to better treat those with sensorimotor or autonomic deficits. |
