Morphological Influence and Electric Field Direction's Influence on Activation of Cortical Neurons in Electrical Brain Stimulation: a Computational Study.

Electrical brain stimulation (EBS) has been actively researched because of its clinical application and usefulness in brain research. However, its effect on individual neurons remains uncertain, as each neuron's response to EBS is highly variable and dependent on its morphology and the axis in which a neuron lies. Hence, our goal was to investigate the way that neuronal morphology affects the cellular response to extracellular stimulation from multiple directions. In this computational study, we observed that the varying neuronal morphology and direction of applied electrical field (EF) had some influence on the excitation threshold, which generates an action potential. Further, change of the excitation threshold depending on EF directions was observed.Clinical Relevance- These findings would help us to understand the variability in the modulatory effects of EBS at the cellular level and would be the basis for understanding the packed fibers' responses to EBS. Ultimately, considering EBS' clinical application, it may also help to predict patient's results from EBS treatment.