Current Density Profiles of Surface Mounted and Recessed Electrodes for Neural Prostheses
Abstract
A Green's function approach has been used to solve Lapalce's equation for the quasi-static fields of a recessed, disk electrode. The resulting integral equation was solved numerically using the moment method. An analysis of the error in the approximate solution shows that it must be less than 7 percent for the cases studied. The calculations indicate that a recessed electrode has a more uniform current density profile than a surface mounted electrode. This is true both at the electrode surface, and at the electrode carrier-tissue junction. The significance of this finding is discussed as is its application to electrochemical, histopathological, and physiological studies of neural prostheses. The clinical use of recessed electrodes in cochlear implants is recommended.
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For large electrodes used in some simulated studies, current intensity can be five-fold higher at the edge of the electrode than in the middle.
“However in practice current “pools” around the edge of electrodes87,88 – for the large electrodes used in some of the studies we simulated, current intensity can be five-fold higher at the edge of the electrode than in the middle.”
From A virtual patient simulation modeling the neural and perceptual effects of human visual cortical stimulation, from pulse trains to percepts (2024) · cites this paper as [87]
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- Authors
- Rubinstein, J. T., Spelman, F. A., Soma, M., & Suesserman, M. F.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
- Published
- 1987-11
- Volume
- BME-34
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 864-875
- ISSN
- 0018-9294 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-2531
- OpenAlex
- W2024395569
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 0.04
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (GM07766)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS 13056)
- National Center for Research Resources (RR00166)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hearing Loss and Rehabilitation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Electrical and Bioimpedance Tomography
- Keywords
- current density profile, neural prostheses, cochlear implants, Green's function, Laplace equation, disk electrode, electrode-tissue interface, method of moments
- MeSH terms
- Biomedical Engineering, Electrodes, Implanted, Humans, Nervous System, Prostheses and Implants
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