# Modern approach to electrical conductivity mapping of spinal cord tissues

> **NIH NIH R21** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $250,037

## Abstract

Project Summary
Over 30,000 patients per year receive electrical stimulation of the spinal cord (neuromodulation) as a means of
pain management. However, optimizing the delivery parameters is difficult, partly because of an extremely
valuable but incomplete dataset on the electrical conductivity of spinal cord tissues. We traced the lineage of
the spinal tissue electrical conductivity sources of the majority of modern electrostimulation models to a single
source,
Ranck 1965. The experiments within Ranck 1965 only provided two types of data: (1) bulk spinal tissue
conductivity at 5, 50, 500, and 5k Hz; and (2) small volume (8 mm3) of dorsal column tissue conductivity at 5-10
Hz. Since the distribution of spinal cord cells throughout the cord is not uniform, the bulk spinal tissue
conductivity sweep does not provide enough spatial information for a detailed electrical model between different
sections, layers, and tissue types of the spinal cord. Our project seeks to significantly improve on Ranck 1965
by obtaining 10-1M Hz, large-volume (40 cm3), and multi-directional conductivity data for electromagnetic
modeling of neuromodulation using an electronically-controlled conductivity probe array. With our findings,
neuroscientists and neuromodulation researchers and designers will be able to provide more targeted therapies
as a result of a more-detailed and rigorous electromagnetic spinal cord model.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10373849
- **Project number:** 1R21NS120166-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthieu Kevin Chardon
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $250,037
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-02-15 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10373849

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10373849, Modern approach to electrical conductivity mapping of spinal cord tissues (1R21NS120166-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10373849. Licensed CC0.

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