I am a bit confused by these statements:
"For extracellular stimulations, a cathodic pulse can generate a current sink in the space immediately around the stimulation electrode, thereby generating an outward transmembrane current to depolarize the membranes of neuronal structures to activate neurons (Rubinstein et al., 2001)."
"An anodic pulse applied extracellularly can itself generate a current source immediately around the stimulation electrode, thereby generating an inward transmembrane current to hyperpolarize the neuronal membranes. Thus, the subsequent anodic phase in a biphasic pulse is supposed to reverse the depolarization effect of the preceding cathodic phase and to elevate the threshold of the cathodic phase to activate neurons (Cappaert et al., 2012; Brocker and Grill, 2013)."
From Zheng L, Feng Z, Xu Y, Yuan Y, Hu Y. An Anodic Phase Can Facilitate Rather Than Weaken a Cathodic Phase to Activate Neurons in Biphasic-Pulse Axonal Stimulations. Front Neurosci. 2022 Mar 17;16:823423. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.823423.
Hello!
Positive charges flow into the cathode and a shortage of them is formed. Inside the cell, positive ions flow to the cathode application area. Both processes are equivalent to depolarization.
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