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Natural sciences
- Modelling and simulation
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Medical and health sciences
- Neurophysiology
- Neuroplasticity
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Engineering and technology
- Occupational health and safety
The IEEE International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) have identified unintended neuromodulation as a dominant effect of human exposure to low frequency (LF) electromagnetic fields (EMF). Exposure to LF EMFs may occur due to surrounding applications such as induction heating, wireless power transfer, and electronic article surveillance. To protect people from adverse effects, IEEE ICES and ICNIRP set exposure limits based on the minimum in situ electric field strength necessary to evoke an action potential in an axon model. As a result, current exposure limits do not consider ongoing endogenous brain activity nor realistic neuron morphology. This leads to the complexity of neural dynamics, which include subthreshold effects and differences in cell types, being overlooked. The purpose of this research proposal is to investigate the conservativeness of IEEE ICES and ICNIRP exposure limits by simulating morphologically realistic and biophysically detailed cortical cell exposure to LF EMFs. The simulations include a comprehensive number of exposure scenarios, cell types, human head models, and small neuronal networks. Thus, this project would provide novel quantitative results for the development of safety guidelines that implement recent advances in computational neuroscience.