About this Research Topic
This Research Topic aims to highlight recent advances in 1) biophysiological modeling that accounts for VNS effects on the physiology of specific organs. The understanding of the effect of VNS on specific organs’ physiology and clinical biomarkers has great importance in accelerating the development of novel therapies for various organs’ specific diseases. Such models could also serve as an in-silico testbed to develop and test novel open-loop and closed-loop VNS strategies for controlling the physiology of specific organs in healthy and diseased cases prior to applying the designed strategies in animal experiments and clinical trials. 2) Topics in mechanistic and data-driven modeling approaches, including hybrid modeling approaches, that account for VNS effects on the physiology of specific organs. 3) Topics in feedback-based closed-loop VNS strategies for controlling organ-specific physiology in healthy and diseased cases, including classical control approaches as well as machine learning and reinforcement learning-based closed-loop VNS designs.
We welcome original research articles and review articles on the topics mentioned below. The specific scope includes, but is not limited to:
1. Biophysiological, computational, and data-driven modeling approaches to account for the effect
of VNS on the healthy and diseased physiology of internal organs, such as the heart, stomach,
lungs, colons, urinary systems, etc.
2. System identification approaches applied to specific organ systems.
3. Parameter estimation techniques for physiological modeling of organs in healthy and diseased
cases.
4. Application of AI/machine learning in modeling/optimizing the effect of VNS on specific organ
physiology in healthy and diseased cases.
5. Feedback control approaches for controlling organs' physiology by stimulating vagal nerves,
including classical control approaches as well as machine learning and reinforcement learning approaches.
Keywords: Vagus nerve stimulation, Biophysiological modeling, Feedback control, Cardiac arrhythmia, Hypertension, Gastroparesis, Urinary incontinence, Neuropathic pain, Machine learning, Reinforcement learning, System identification
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.