Fully Customizable, Low-Cost, Multi-Contact Nerve Cuffs for Spatially Selective Neuromodulation.

Abstract

Selective neuromodulation of peripheral nerves is an emerging treatment for neurological diseases that are resistant to traditional drug therapy. While nerve cuffs with multichannel stimulation can be made by many varied methods, they usually require specialized microfabrication or additive manufacturing equipment. A truly low-cost and effective method of creating a custom cuff has not been accessible to researchers to prototype new methodologies and therapies in acute studies. Here, we present an inexpensive, highly repeatable method to create multi-contact nerve cuffs that require a simple postproduction PEDOT:PSS coating to improve the tissue/electrode interface. We demonstrate spatially selective neuromodulation with the proposed cuff design on the rat sciatic by preferentially activating the tibialis anterior (TA) and the lateral gastrocnemius (LG) in longitudinal and transverse stimulation patterns. This demonstrates that the proposed cuff fabrication method was not only effective for selective neuromodulation, but it is also significantly lower in cost, fully-customizable, and easily manufactured for future selective neuromodulation studies.