Fig. 3

Non-invasive stimulation of both hypoglossal nerves in OSA patients reduces AHI in women. Temporal interference has been mostly applied to the Central Nervous System (CNS). As for CNS stimulation, TI can be used as a non-invasive tool to stimulate the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) in humans. As cranial nerves exist in pairs, bilateral TI can simultaneously stimulate both cranial XII nerves focally and elicit a tongue movement or at least tension in the tongue. Simulations and experimental pre-tests allowed the identification of optimized exposure parameters and electrode placements for selective HN stimulation: 5kHz and 6kHz frequency carriers to minimalize tingling sensation on the skin when the stimulation if turned on, 50Hz TI stimulation for both HN and electrode placement around the bilateral digastric anterior belly muscles (A). In-laboratory respiratory summaries were realized in already diagnosed OSA patients, a polysomnogram with bTI stimulation was also recorded on night 2 for each patient (night 1: baseline without bTI; night 2: recording with bTI) (B), and AHIs were calculated and compared to establish the severity of OSA with and without the bTI stimulation. In the present analysis, only participants with a BMI <35kg/m²and a baseline AHI <50, which includes 4 women (squares 1 to 4 in boxplots) and 7 men (circles 5 to 11 in boxplots). No significant differences between stimulation ON and OFF were detected for men (p-value_{Wilcoxon test} = 0.89), whereas women seem to respond significantly to the treatment with a clear decrease in their AHI values (p-value_{Wilcoxon test} = 0.029) (C)