Method and apparatus for measurement of evoked neural response

Abstract

The invention provides a method of electrical artefact compensation in measurement of a neural response. The neural response is evoked by a first stimulus, after which a compensatory stimulus is applied in order to counteract a stimulus artefact caused by the first stimulus. The invention also provides for short circuiting the stimulating electrode subsequent to the first stimulus. A system for implementing such steps is also provided. The invention may be of application in measurement of physiological responses, including neural responses and in particular a neural response of the auditory nerve.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0001] The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring the evoked responses of nerves to electrical stimulation, and more particularly to a system and apparatus to assist recovery of such data from an auditory prosthesis. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART [0002] Cochlear implants have been developed to assist people who are profoundly deaf or severely hearing impaired, by enabling them to experience hearing sensation representative of the natural hearing sensation. In most such cases, these individuals have an absence of or destruction of the hair cells in the cochlea which naturally transduce acoustic signals into nerve impulses which are interpreted by the brain as sound. The cochlear implant therefore bypasses the hair cells to directly deliver electrical stimulation to the auditory nerves with this electrical stimulation being representative of the sound. [0003] Cochlear implants have traditionally consisted of two parts, an external speec...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019] It has now been realised that stimulus artefacts in a nerve stimulus system arise due to a number of different mechanisms in the system and the surrounding tissue. The present invention, in addressing such artefacts at the time of attempting to measure evoked neural responses, allows for some reduction or compensation for the effects of stimulus artefacts, which can reduce or remove the need to resort to post-measurement processing.

[0060] It has further been realised that application of a compensatory stimulus may prove to be of assistance generally when a first stimulus is applied to physiological tissue with a capacitive characteristic, where a response of the physiological tissue to the first stimulus is desired to be measured.

Problems solved by technology

For implants with a large number of channels for stimulation, this process is quite time consuming and rather subjective as it relies heavily on the recipients subjective impression of the stimulation rather than any specific measurement.

In such cases an incorrectly fitted implant may result in the recipient not receiving optimum benefit from the implant and in the cases of children may directly hamper the speech and hearing development of the child.

Whilst prior art systems of this type have proven useful in capturing and investigating evoked neural responses in the cochlea, there are still a number of intrinsic limitations associated with such systems, which have affected the quality of the measurements of the neural response.

In the main this has been due to the presence of stimulus artefacts in the measurement detected, resulting in a measurement being taken which is not necessarily a true indication of the actual ECAP response present.

The process of distinguishing the actual ECAP from stimulus artefacts has presented considerable difficulties, including problems such as the fact that the signals that are to be measured are extremely low level signals (down to the order of 10 uV).

Providing for a system that is firstly able to deliver a stimulus of sufficient amplitude and also to detect the elicited response of the nerves to that particular stimulation has therefore been problematic.

In order to properly resolve the very small neural signal a large amplifler gain is required (typically of about 60 dB to 70 dB), however the neural signal is often superimposed on a much larger artefact which makes it difficult to extract the neural signal of interest due to the finite dynamic range of the amplifier and the need for high gain to resolve the signal.

Such a system does not provide immediate results which can be acted upon, as the measured results often require time consuming analysis before they can be used.

With the need to use such results immediately to adjust patient T and C levels, existing methods are not satisfactory.

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