A continuum model of electrical stimulation of multi-compartmental retinal ganglion cells

A continuum multi-domain model of electrical stimulation of the retina is presented. Each point in the retinal ganglion cell layer could be thought of as representing a single cell, whose biophysics is described using a four-compartment formulation incorporating varying ion channel expressions in the soma, axon initial segment, dendrites and axon. Our continuum model was validated against a discrete morphologically-realistic OFF RGC model, using intra- and extra-cellular electrical stimulation scenarios. Simulations from the continuum model reproduced the same results as that of the discrete model. Our continuum model is the first multi-domain model to represent all main RGC compartments, not just the soma. Moreover, we demonstrated that this model allows the investigation of axonal activation which has been observed to influence the perception of phosphenes.