Analysis of neural activation in time-dependent membrane capacitance models

Abstract

Most models of neurons incorporate a capacitor to account for the marked capacitive behavior exhibited by the cell membrane. However, such capacitance is widely considered constant, thereby neglecting the possible effects of time-dependent membrane capacitance on neural excitability. This study presents a modified formulation of a neuron model with time-dependent membrane capacitance and shows that action potentials can be elicited for certain capacitance dynamics. Our main results can be summarized as: (a) it is necessary to have significant and abrupt variations in the capacitance to generate action potentials; (b) certain simple and explicitly constructed capacitance profiles with strong variations do generate action potentials; (c) forcing abrupt changes in the capacitance too frequently may result in no action potentials. These findings can have great implications for the design of ultrasound-based or other neuromodulation strategies acting through transiently altering the membrane capacitance of neurons.

Leo Medina

Principal Investigator

Leo teaches engineering courses at Usach, and his research interests are in the neural engineering and computational neuroscience fields. His work has contributed to understand how nerve fibers respond to electrical stimulation.