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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neuroprosthetics
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1519377

The inhibitory effect of intraspinal microstimulation of the sacral spinal cord on nonlinear bladder reflex dynamics in cats

Provisionally accepted
Amirhossein Qasemi Amirhossein Qasemi 1,2Alireza Aminian Alireza Aminian 1,2Abbas Erfanian Abbas Erfanian 1,2*
  • 1 Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran
  • 2 Iran Neural Technology Research Center, Theran, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Electrical stimulation of the pudendal nerve, pelvic nerve, sacral dorsal root ganglion (DRG), and spinal cord has been explored to treat urinary incontinence and overactive bladder (OAB). This study introduces sacral intraspinal microstimulation (ISMS) as a novel method to inhibit spontaneous bladder reflexes in anesthetized cats. We investigated the effects of intermittent and switching stimulation patterns on bladder inhibition. Bladder pressure was recorded under isovolumetric conditions, and stimulation parameters were adjusted to modulate spontaneous contractions. Nonlinear dynamic methods, including chaos theory, were employed to analyze the complexity of bladder reflexes. Results demonstrated that ISMS targeting the dorsal horn of the S2 spinal segment effectively suppressed highamplitude spontaneous contractions. Furthermore, bladder reflexes exhibited complex dynamics, ranging from regular to chaotic patterns, with transitions between these states. Importantly, ISMS was able to stabilize these chaotic dynamics, leading to more controlled bladder behavior. These findings suggest that sacral ISMS offers a promising, targeted alternative to traditional stimulation therapies, potentially providing a new therapeutic approach for managing OAB and urinary incontinence by regulating chaotic bladder activity.

    Keywords: intraspinal microstimulation, incontinence, bladder inhibition, Neuromodulation, cat, chaotic dynamics, Recurrence plot. Summary

    Received: 29 Oct 2024; Accepted: 08 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Qasemi, Aminian and Erfanian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Abbas Erfanian, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

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