Modeling the electrical activity in myelinated nerve fibers: Towards the electrophysiological validation of neuronal bridges

DE MARCO NILDA; SOCCI MARÍA CECILIA; GOY CARLA BELÉN; ANA LIA ALBARRACIN; FELICE CARMELO JOSÉ; FARFÁN, FERNANDO DANIEL

Montevideo

Congreso; XXII Congreso de Bioingeniería y 11ª Jornada de Ingeniería Clínica; 2020

Universidad de la República

Due to certain limitations in electrophysiology, there is usually a need for analytical and or empirical systems to understand the sensorial and neuronal processes underlying the reception, transmission, and transformation of neural information in the nervous system. These models typically adjust to anatomic/functional backgrounds and also to systems´ experimental observations. The systems in vivo or in vitro electrophysiological characterization is a standard procedure that helps understand certain anatomic/functional aspects of nervous conduction in sensory/motor fibers. In this paper a simplified empirical model is proposed to describe an action potential generation and conduction through myelinic fibers. This approximation involves concepts regarding action potential generation and propagation in myelinic fibers, conduction by volume and medium bioelectric properties. The model´s electrophysiological validation was performed through qualitative analysis in three experimental situations that call for action potential: a) sciatic nerve in frog, b) giant lateral axons and giant medial axon in tapeworm, and c) infraorbital nerve in rats. Results evidence the proposed empirical model´s great versatility to the different evoked action potentials. The model´s adjustment parameters, intuitively formulated, help facilitate the modeling system implementation and interpretation.