Nerve Activity Monitoring Signal Demodulation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current methods for monitoring nerve activity, particularly autonomic nerves, face challenges due to low signal-to-noise ratio and noise artifacts, making it difficult to accurately detect and correlate nerve activity with physiological responses.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that calculate the frequency spectrum of nerve activity signals, identify a demodulation frequency, demodulate periodic portions, and average them to generate an averaged signal, reducing noise artifacts and improving signal accuracy.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If conventional EIT methods are used to monitor nerve activity, then nerve activity can be detected, but the signal-to-noise ratio is low and noise artifacts interfere with accurate detection

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenerve activity detection accuracyVSAvoidnoise artifacts

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the nerve activity signal into multiple individual cycles and processes each cycle separately through demodulation and averaging. This segmentation allows the system to isolate and enhance periodic neural components while suppressing random noise artifacts, directly improving measurement precision without being overwhelmed by noise.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent exploits the periodic nature of nerve activity by identifying individual cycles within the signal. By detecting periodic patterns and extracting signals corresponding to these periodic portions, the system can accumulate and average multiple cycles, thereby enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio and reducing noise artifacts that do not exhibit periodic behavior.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #19Periodic action

2Measurement precision

If averaging is used to enhance signal-to-noise ratio, then detection accuracy improves, but the process requires multiple evoked responses over extended time periods

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesignal-to-noise ratioVSAvoidsignal averaging time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary demodulation of each individual nerve activity cycle before averaging. By preprocessing each cycle to extract the relevant signal components and remove noise early in the process, the system reduces the number of cycles needed for effective averaging, thereby decreasing the total time required while still achieving high signal-to-noise ratio.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces traditional time-domain averaging with a frequency-domain approach using demodulation. This substitution allows the system to enhance signal-to-noise ratio more efficiently by targeting specific frequency components associated with nerve activity, reducing the time required compared to conventional time-domain averaging methods.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

3Ease of operation

If externally evoked responses are used to initiate signal averaging, then periodic signals can be detected, but spontaneous and phasic autonomic nerve activity cannot be effectively monitored

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesignal averaging capabilityVSAvoidautonomic nerve monitoring capability

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent enables the system to automatically detect and utilize periodic portions of spontaneous nerve activity without requiring external evocation. The system self-adapts by identifying periodic patterns inherent in the recorded signal and using these patterns to guide demodulation and averaging, making it versatile enough to handle both evoked and spontaneous autonomic nerve activity.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements a dynamic approach where the system continuously identifies periodic portions within the signal and adapts its processing accordingly. This dynamic capability allows the system to transition from requiring fixed evoked responses to detecting variable spontaneous patterns, enhancing adaptability to different types of nerve activity including phasic and tonic autonomic signals.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

4Loss of information

If multiple electrode pairs are used to collect transfer impedance recordings, then comprehensive nerve activity data can be obtained, but the device complexity and data processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenerve activity information completenessVSAvoidelectrode configuration complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and processes each individual nerve activity cycle separately through demodulation, isolating the relevant signal components from the complex multi-electrode data. This extraction approach allows comprehensive information from multiple electrode pairs to be utilized while simplifying the processing by handling one cycle at a time, reducing the computational burden despite the complexity of the electrode configuration.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS11589827B2Nerve activity monitoring

Publication Date: 2023.02.28 GALVANI BIOELECTRONICS LTD

AI summary

There is provided a nerve activity monitoring method that includes receiving an input signal indicative of activity in a nerve of a subject; receiving physiological data indicative of physiological activity in the subject; establishing a relationship between the physiological data and the input signal; identifying a plurality of periodic portions in the input signal based on the relationship between the physiological data and the input signal; and outputting the periodic portions identified.