Electrical Stimulation and Neuroprostheses for Restoring Swallowing Function

In nerve cells, information is coded and transmitted as a series of electrical impulses called “action potentials,” which represent a brief change in cell electric potential. Nerve signals are frequency modulated; that is, the number of action potentials that occur in a unit of time is proportional to the intensity of the transmitted signal. An action potential can be elicited artificially by changing the electric potential of a nerve axon by inducing electrical charge into the cell. This process when used to generate useful body functions is termed Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES).