Investigation of Fibre Size Stimulation Selectivity Using Earthworm Model
Résumé
Fibre type and diameter selective stimulation may allow to restore various motor and sensory functions of human body that have been lost due to disease or injury. Already many stimulation techniques have been proposed for that purpose. They were verified performing computer simulations and in some cases also by in vivo experiments on mammalian models. Results of computer simulations still need to be confirmed by in vivo experiments, however experiments on mammalian models, due to high number of fibres within stimulated nerve, can be very complex to perform and obtained results difficult to interpret. In this paper, we propose the earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) as a model for selective stimulation. The earthworm has three giant nerve fibres, with two distinctly different conduction velocities. Therefore it is very easy to distinguish between fibres that are firing at the moment. As a consequence the selectivity of stimulation may be immediately verified without application of sophisticated signal processing and averaging techniques. During performed experiments we have proofed that experimental procedure is simple and the obtained results easy to interpret.