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The aim of this study was to examine the influence of uncertainty of the material properties of brain tissue on the probabilistic voltage response and the probabilistic volume of tissue activated (VTA) in a volume conductor model of deep brain stimulation. To quantify the uncertainties of the desired quantities without changing the deterministic model, a nonintrusive projection method was used by approximating these quantities by a polynomial expansion on a multidimensional basis known as polynomial chaos. The coefficients of this expansion were computed with a multidimensional quadrature on sparse Smolyak grids. The deterministic model combines a finite element model based on a digital brain atlas and a multicompartmental model of mammalian nerve fibers. The material properties of brain tissue were modeled as uniform random parameters using data from several experimental studies. Different magnitudes of uncertainty in the material properties were computed to allow predictions on the resulting uncertainties in the desired quantities. The results showed a major contribution of the uncertainties in the electrical conductivity values of brain tissue on the voltage response as well as on the predicted VTA, while the influence of the uncertainties in the relative permittivity was negligible.

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a b s t r a c tThis study presents a whole-head finite element model of deep brain stimulation to examine the effect of electrical grounding, the finite conducting volume of the head, and scalp, skull and cerebrospinal fluid layers. The impedance between the stimulating and reference electrodes in the whole-head model was found to lie within clinically reported values when the reference electrode was incorporated on a localized surface in the model. Incorporation of the finite volume of the head and inclusion of surrounding outer tissue layers reduced the magnitude of the electric field and activating function by approximately 20% in the region surrounding the electrode. Localized distortions of the electric field were also observed when the electrode was placed close to the skull. Under bipolar conditions the effect of the finite conducting volume was shown to be negligible. The results indicate that, for monopolar stimulation, incorporation of the finite volume and outer tissue layers can alter the magnitude of the electric field and activating function when the electrode is deep within the brain, and may further affect the shape if the electrode is close to the skull.

The aim of this study was to investigate the interaction of the electrode-tissue interface and dispersive tissue properties on waveforms used for deep brain stimulation. A finite element model with a distributed impedance electrical double layer was developed. Bulk tissue capacitance and dispersion were found to alter the voltage waveform under constant current stimulation. When the electrode was surrounded by conductive saline or white matter tissue, the electrical double layer was dominant under voltage controlled stimulation. However, as encapsulation tissue resistivity was increased, to emulate chronic stimulation, the voltage waveform approached that observed during constant current stimulation and the influence of the frequency dependent material properties again became dominant.