A Three-Dimensional Electromagnetic Model for the DBS Application

Deep brain stimulation is a technique clinically successful for movement disorders including Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. Moreover, its possible application to treatment of epilepsy and obsessive-compulsive disorders is becoming a real perspective. Besides its convincing clinical efficacy, to date no clear understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms is achieved. In order to obtain an in depth knowledge of the action of this stimulation technique, in this paper a 3D electromagnetic model of the anatomical region involved in the electrical stimulation has been developed. The value of the electric potential induced inside the anatomical nuclei has been evaluated for different dimensions of the 3D analysis domain and for different ground positions on the domain boundary. Results indicate that the influence of such parameters on the induced electric potential inside the target nuclei is not negligible and that anisotropic properties of tissues must be taken into account.