Editing Functional: Neuromodulation (section)

=== Pudendal Nerve ===
* Because the bladder afferent reflex works through sacral interneurons that then activate storage through pudendal nerve efferent pathways directed toward the urethral sphincter, the pudendal nerve is a logical target for developing neuromodulation therapies
* Neurophysiologic studies reveal that SNS works for bladder storage disorders by a similar inhibition of the micturition reflex as a result of electrical stimulation of sensory afferent fibers, in particular by depolarization of Aα and Aγ somatomotor fibers that affect the pelvic floor and external sphincter and thus inhibit detrusor activity. Because many of the sensory afferent nerve fibers contained in the sacral spinal nerves originate in the pudendal nerve, the pudendal nerve afferents are important targets for neuromodulating the inhibitory reflex on the micturition reflex
* '''Direct pudendal nerve neuromodulation stimulates more pudendal afferents than SNS provides and may do so without the side effects of off-target stimulation of leg and buttock muscles.'''