Subthreshold electrical stimulation as a low power electrical treatment for stroke rehabilitation

Abstract

As a promising future treatment for stroke rehabilitation, researchers have developed direct brain stimulation to manipulate the neural excitability. However, there has been less interest in energy consumption and unexpected side effect caused by electrical stimulation to bring functional recovery for stroke rehabilitation. In this study, we propose an engineering approach with subthreshold electrical stimulation (STES) to bring functional recovery. Here, we show a low level of electrical stimulation boosted causal excitation in connected neurons and strengthened the synaptic weight in a simulation study. We found that STES with motor training enhanced functional recovery after stroke in vivo. STES was shown to induce neural reconstruction, indicated by higher neurite expression in the stimulated regions and correlated changes in behavioral performance and neural spike firing pattern during the rehabilitation process. This will reduce the energy consumption of implantable devices and the side effects caused by stimulating unwanted brain regions.

Effectiveness and safety of subthreshold vibration over suprathreshold vibration in treatment of muscle fatigue in elderly people

“…To the best of our knowledge, rare studies have been conducted to study the effect of subthreshold vibration on muscle strength. Kim et al [ 70 ] demonstrated that subthreshold stimulation with motor training improves functional recovery after stroke through normalizing neural reconstruction, showed by advanced neurite expression in the activated areas and associated alteration in behavior and neural spike firing rate throughout the rehabilitation after stroke. Previously, we reported that proprioceptive training might be an efficient treatment in reducing the progression rate of sarcopenia and improving the fatigability within elderly people[ 2 ].…”

Localization of Lesion Cells and Targeted Mitochondria Via Embedded Hydrogel Microsphere using Heat Transfer Microneedles

“…[24] Therefore, developing innovative delivery systems to carry hydrogel microspheres through the physical barrier of the cartilage matrix and realize the lesion localization therapy for full-thickness chondrocytes is extremely challenging. Physical factors (such as electricity [25] and magnetism [26] ) have strong penetrability; similarly, the universal physical stimulus signal, i.e., heat, plays a vital role in the human body and can be used to regulate the mitochondria. [27,28] Mild heat can stimulate cells to produce HSP-70, [29] which can inhibit the secretion of caspase-3 in the mitochondria, [30] thus inhibiting mitochondrial and focal cell apoptosis.…”

Mean-Field Approximations With Adaptive Coupling for Networks With Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity

“…In particular, long-term plasticity is critical to the design of effective therapies for neurological disorders based on invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation. Paired associative stimulation using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been shown to trigger STDP-like changes (Müller-Dahlhaus et al, 2010;Johnen et al, 2015;Wiratman et al, 2022), and STDP models have been used to design electrical stimulation for stroke rehabilitation (Kim et al, 2021). Coordinated reset deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson's disease was designed to induce long-term plastic changes outlasting stimulation using STDP models 1 In this work, we call plasticity rules causal when temporal precedence is enforced (as in "classical" STDP rules; Bi & Poo, 1998), and symmetric when inverting spike timings and phase differences leads to the same type of adaptation.…”