title: Investigating the effect of thermal stress on nerve action potential using the soliton model.
abstract: The thermal mechanism of acoustic modulation of the reversible electrical activities of peripheral nerves is investigated using the soliton model, and a numerical solution is presented for its non-homogenous version. Our results indicate that heating a small segment of the nerve will increase the action potential conduction velocity and decrease its amplitude. Moreover, cooling the nerve will have the reverse effects, and cooling to temperatures below the nerve melting point can reflect back a significant portion of the action potentials. These results are consistent with the theory of the soliton model, as well as with the experimental findings. Although there exists a discrepancy between the results of the soliton model and experimental pulse amplitude data, from the free energy point of view, the experiments are compatible with Heimburg and Jackson theory. We conclude that the presented model accompanied by the free energy view is capable of simulating the effects of thermal energy on nerve function. One potential application of the developed theoretical model will be investigation of the reversible and irreversible effects of thermal energy induced by various energy modalities, including therapeutic ultrasound, on nerve function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mojtaba
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haji Hasani
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: gharibzadeh@aut.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Shahriar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gharibzadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Engineering, Qom University, Qom, Iran.
authors.forename: Yaghoub
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Farjami
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jahan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tavakkoli
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008954:Models, Biological; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000502:physiology*; D000069453:Ultrasonic Waves
keywords: Action potential; Gibbs free energy; Nerve heating; Numerical solution; Soliton model