Method and System for Determining Settings for Deep Brain Stimulation

A control system (20) for determining a relation between stimulation settings for a brain stimulation probe (10) and a corresponding V-field, the brain stimulation probe (10) comprising multiple stimulation electrodes (11), the V-field being a potential distribution in brain tissue surrounding the stimulation electrodes (11), the control system (20) comprising:

• means (21) for applying test currents to the stimulation electrodes,
• means (22) for measuring an excitation voltage resulting from the applied test currents, and
• a processor (23) being arranged for
• instructing the means (21) for applying test currents to sequentially apply a test current to n stimulation electrodes (11), n being a number between 2 and the number of stimulation electrodes (11) of the brain stimulation probe (10),
• instructing the means (22) for measuring an excitation voltage to measure at m stimulation electrodes (11) an excitation voltage caused by each test current, m being a number between 2 and the number of stimulation electrodes (11) of the brain stimulation probe (10),
• from the stimulation settings and the measured excitation voltages, deriving an (m*n) coupling matrix, an element Zq, p in the coupling matrix reflecting an amount of electrical impedance between two of the stimulation electrodes (11), and
• using the coupling matrix for determining the relation between the stimulation settings and the corresponding V-field