Systems and methods for detecting nerve stimulation with an implanted prosthesis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9352153-B2
Application number	US-201113012639-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 24, 2011
Priority date	Jan 24, 2011
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

The present application discloses systems and methods for detecting non-auditory nerve stimulation with an implant having a plurality of electrodes configured to electrically stimulate a target nerve of the implant recipient. One embodiment includes generating an electrical stimulation signal with a first set of electrodes of the implant, measuring a response to the electrical stimulation signal with a second set of electrodes of the implant, and determining whether the electrical stimulation signal stimulated at least one non-target nerve of the implant recipient based on the measured response.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
delivering, with a first set of electrodes of a cochlear implant, an electrical signal to a cochlea of a recipient of the cochlear implant, wherein the cochlear implant comprises a plurality of electrodes, and wherein at least a portion of the plurality of electrodes are positioned within the cochlea of the recipient to stimulate an auditory nerve of the recipient;
measuring, with a second set of electrodes of the cochlear implant, a response to the electrical signal; and
based on the measured response, determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated a facial nerve of the recipient.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve of the recipient comprises:
comparing one or more signal characteristics of the response to one or more model signal characteristics of facial nerve stimulation to identify one or more similarities between the one or more signal characteristics of the response and the one or more model signal characteristics of the facial nerve stimulation; and
analyzing one or more similarities between the one or more signal characteristics of the response and the one or more model signal characteristics of the facial nerve stimulation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the measuring of the response overlaps with the delivering of the electrical signal to the cochlea, and wherein the method further comprises:
prior to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve of the recipient, subtracting one or more signal components corresponding to the electrical signal or stimulation signal artifacts from the response.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one or more signal characteristics of a recipient's auditory nerve response are known, and wherein determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve of the recipient comprises:
comparing signal characteristics of the response to the one or more known signal characteristics of the recipient's auditory nerve response to identify one or more differences between the signal characteristics of the response and the one or more known signal characteristics of the recipient's auditory nerve response; and
analyzing the one or more differences between the signal characteristics of the response and the one or more known signal characteristics of the recipient's auditory response.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve of the recipient comprises:
comparing signal characteristics of the response to one or more corresponding thresholds; and
determining that one or more signal characteristics of the response exceed at least one corresponding threshold.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cochlear implant has a plurality of configuration settings, and wherein the method further comprises:
in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve, changing one or more configuration settings of the cochlear implant such that delivery of the electrical signal with the first set of electrodes does not directly and electrically stimulate the facial nerve.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the measured response to a computing device configured to determine that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising generating an alert in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve, changing one or more of an amplitude, a pulse width, or a pulse rate of the electrical signal such that delivery of the electrical signal with the first set of electrodes does not directly and electrically stimulate the facial nerve.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of electrodes comprises an active electrode and a reference electrode, and wherein the method further comprises:
changing at least one of the active electrode or the reference electrode to a different electrode in the plurality of electrodes in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of electrodes comprises an active electrode and a reference electrode, and wherein the method further comprises:
disabling the active electrode in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the response to the electrical signal comprises measuring at least one of a current, a voltage, a frequency, or an impedance with the second set of electrodes of the cochlear implant.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the first electrical signal stimulated the facial nerve comprises analyzing the measured response with a recognition algorithm implemented in at least one of software, hardware, or firmware.

14. A cochlear implant comprising:
a plurality of electrodes including (i) a first set of electrodes configured to deliver at least one electrical signal to a cochlea of recipient of the cochlear implant to stimulate the recipient's auditory nerve, and (ii) a second set of electrodes configured to measure a response to delivery of the at least one electrical signal to the cochlea; and
circuitry configured to analyze the measured response and determine, based on the analysis, that the at least one electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated a facial nerve of the recipient.

15. The cochlear implant of claim 14 , further comprising:
non-transitory machine-readable storage media configured to store a plurality of configuration settings for the cochlear implant, wherein in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve, the cochlear implant is configured to change one or more of the configuration settings of the cochlear implant such that delivery of the electrical signal with the first set of electrodes does not directly and electrically stimulate the facial nerve.

16. The implant of claim 14 , wherein the implant is further configured to change one or more of an amplitude, a pulse width, or a stimulation rate of the electrical signal in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

17. The cochlear implant of claim 14 , wherein the first set of electrodes comprises an active electrode and a reference electrode, and wherein the cochlear implant further comprises circuitry configured to change at least one of the active electrode or the reference electrode to a different electrode in the plurality of electrodes in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

18. The cochlear implant of claim 14 , wherein the first set of electrodes comprises an active electrode and a reference electrode, and wherein the implant further comprises circuitry configured to disable the active electrode in response to determining that the electrical signal directly and electrically stimulated the facial nerve.

19. The cochlear implant of claim 14 , further comprising a component configured to

Assignees

• Van Dijk Bastiaan
• Cochlear Ltd

Inventors

• Van Dijk Bastiaan

Classifications

• A61N1/0541 Primary

  Cochlear electrodes · CPC title

• A61N1/36039

  fitting procedures · CPC title

• A61N1/36032 Primary

  Human Necessities · mapped topic

• A61N1/36135

  using physiological parameters · CPC title

• A61F2/76 Primary

  Means for assembling, fitting or testing prostheses, e.g. for measuring or balancing, {e.g. alignment means} · CPC title