I need to confess. The other day I was on the topic of brain stimulation
with a physicist who has never dealt with brain or brain tissue stimulation.
During the conversation he asked me a simple question I was not able to
answer in a laconic and elegant way. Can you help an ignorant?
background: A solution for avoiding use of surface electrodes, in the past,
aimed at stimulation of deep structures has been a topic of discussion. The
information was provided that a current with various long wave frequency was
used (10 to 100Hz)
the question was: so, what's happening in the nuclei in question? why the
nuclei becomes a/ excited or b/ inhibited when a particular
current/frequency is applied?
Clearly, my mumbo-jumbo didn't work even for me.
Hence is my question:
1. why do we need a particular current/ frequency to excite/inhibit a
particular nuclei? What exactly changes within a nuclei? ( as in immediately
changes?)
2. why a specific surface electrode induced current excites/inhibits a
specific, even a deep nuclei, but not much else?
Thanks,
Konstantin K.
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