Biomedical Engineering - Research Publications

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    Electrical Stimulation of Neural Tissue Modeled as a Cellular Composite: Point Source Electrode in an Isotropic Tissue
    Monfared, O ; Nesic, D ; Freestone, DR ; Grayden, DB ; Tahayori, B ; Meffin, H (IEEE, 2014)
    Standard volume conductor models of neural electrical stimulation assume that the electrical properties of the tissue are well described by a conductivity that is smooth and homogeneous at a microscopic scale. However, neural tissue is composed of tightly packed cells whose membranes have markedly different electrical properties to either the intra- or extracellular space. Consequently, the electrical properties of tissue are highly heterogeneous at the microscopic scale: a fact not accounted for in standard volume conductor models. Here we apply a recently developed framework for volume conductor models that accounts for the cellular composition of tissue. We consider the case of a point source electrode in tissue comprised of neural fibers crossing each other equally in all directions. We derive the tissue admittivity (that replaces the standard tissue conductivity) from single cell properties, and then calculate the extracellular potential. Our findings indicate that the cellular composition of tissue affects the spatiotemporal profile of the extracellular potential. In particular, the full solution asymptotically approaches a near-field limit close to the electrode and a far-field limit far from the electrode. The near-field and far-field approximations are solutions to standard volume conductor models, but differ from each other by nearly an order or magnitude. Consequently the full solution is expected to provide a more accurate estimate of electrical potentials over the full range of electrode-neurite separations.
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    Epiretinal Electrical Stimulation and the Inner Limiting Membrane in Rat Retina
    Cloherty, SL ; Wong, RCS ; Hadjinicolaou, AE ; Meffin, H ; Ibbotson, MR ; O'Brien, BJ (IEEE, 2012)
    In this paper we aim to quantify the effect of the inner limiting membrane (ILM) of the retina on the thresholds for epiretinal electrical stimulation of retinal ganglion cells by a microelectronic retinal prosthesis. A pair of bipolar stimulating electrodes was placed either above (on the epiretinal surface) or below the ILM while we made whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from retinal ganglion cells in an isolated rat retinal whole-mount preparation. Across our cell population we found no significant difference in the median threshold stimulus amplitudes when the stimulating electrodes were placed below as opposed to above the ILM (p = 0.08). However, threshold stimulus amplitudes did tend to be lower when the stimulating electrodes were placed below the ILM (30 µA vs 56 µA).
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    Retinal ganglion cells electrophysiology: the effect of cell morphology on impulse waveform
    Maturana, MI ; Wong, R ; Cloherty, SL ; Ibbotson, MR ; Hadjinicolaou, AE ; Grayden, DB ; Burkitt, AN ; Meffin, H ; O'Brien, BJ ; Kameneva, T (IEEE, 2013)
    There are 16 morphologically defined classes of rats retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Using computer simulation of a realistic anatomically correct A1 mouse RGC, we investigate the effect of the cell's morphology on its impulse waveform, using the first-, and second-order time derivatives as well as the phase plot features. Using whole cell patch clamp recordings, we recorded the impulse waveform for each of the rat RGCs types. While we found some clear differences in many features of the impulse waveforms for A2 and B2 cells compared to other cell classes, many cell types did not show clear differences.