Computational models of vagus nerve stimulation

Vagus nerve stimulation is approved for epilepsy and depression and under study for heart failure, inflammation, and more, but a cuff on the cervical vagus activates fibers to every organ at once. The project builds models of the nerve from its real fascicular anatomy (VaStim), estimates each fiber's activation threshold efficiently, and personalizes the model to an individual animal so that stimulation parameters can be optimized in silico before they are tried in vivo.

In swine, intermittent interferential current stimulation designed with these models activates organ-specific fibers in a controlled spatiotemporal pattern and reaches a desired bronchopulmonary effect with fewer laryngeal side effects than conventional sinusoidal stimulation.