Use of impedance method to study the efficacy of magnetic stimulation in feline sciatic nerve

Recently, magnetic stimulation of the central and peripheral nervous systems is becoming an alternative mechanism to the electrical stimulation. Due to the excellent permeability of the magnetic fields in tissue, magnetic stimulation is found as a non-invasive or minimally invasive technique that can increase the efficacy and longevity of the neural stimulator. Magnetic stimulation, as compared to electrical stimulation, uses alternative current in the magnetic coil to induce eddy currents in conductive tissues to elicit a neural response. Traditionally, analytical solutions have been pursued to understand the underlying mechanism of magnetic stimulation incorporating simple nerve/tissue models [1-2]. Few attempts were also taken to study the effect of tissue boundaries on the induced electric field [3]. However, due to the overly simplistic tissue models, these analytical solutions did not provide sufficient insights on the stimulation conditions for the neural response.