Neurostimulation Device Using Offset Electrodes for Deep Brain Targeting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current noninvasive neuromodulation techniques face challenges in targeting deep brain regions effectively, achieving precise stimulation, and providing long-term treatment options for neuropsychiatric disorders, often resulting in inadequate focality, side effects, and high costs due to invasiveness and limited scalability.
Innovation Solution
A neurostimulation device with a network of electrodes and a controller that selectively delivers electrical pulses to specific brain regions using offset electrode configurations, minimizing current and voltage in other areas, and employing biphasic waveforms to achieve targeted stimulation with reduced side effects and increased focality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If invasive deep brain stimulation (DBS) is used to target deep brain regions, then stimulation precision and effectiveness are improved, but surgical risks, invasiveness, and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses scalp electrodes as an intermediary to deliver electrical stimulation to deep brain regions without direct brain penetration. The electrodes placed on the scalp serve as mediators that guide electrical current through the skull and brain tissue to reach target deep brain structures, eliminating surgical risks while maintaining stimulation precision through carefully controlled current pathways and offset electrode configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical surgical intervention of DBS with an electrical field-based stimulation approach. Instead of mechanically implanting electrodes into the brain through surgery, the system uses electrical fields generated by scalp electrodes to achieve deep brain stimulation, substituting a non-invasive electrical mechanism for an invasive mechanical one.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If noninvasive techniques like TMS are used to stimulate brain regions, then safety is improved, but ability to reach deep brain regions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes key parameters of electrical stimulation including using offset electrode configurations, adjusting current intensity and duration, and employing specific pulse patterns to enable deep brain region activation through scalp electrodes. These parameter modifications allow the electrical fields to penetrate deeper into the brain while maintaining safety by avoiding excessive current densities at the scalp surface.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from superficial brain stimulation to deep brain stimulation by utilizing the three-dimensional spatial arrangement of multiple scalp electrodes. The offset electrode configurations create electrical field pathways that extend deeper into the brain volume, effectively adding depth dimension to the stimulation reach while maintaining noninvasive safety.
3Reliability
If high current TCS is used to induce neurophysiological effects, then stimulation effectiveness is improved, but skin damage and side effects increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the electrical current delivery by using multiple offset electrode pairs instead of a single high-current electrode. Each electrode pair delivers a portion of the total current, distributing the electrical load across multiple contact points on the scalp. This segmentation maintains overall stimulation effectiveness while reducing the current density and potential for skin damage at any single electrode site.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs periodic pulsed current delivery with specific timing patterns between electrode stimulations. By using intermittent pulsed currents rather than continuous high current, the system achieves cumulative neurophysiological effects over time while allowing tissue recovery periods that prevent skin damage and reduce side effects.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables precise and effective stimulation of deep brain regions with reduced side effects, improving treatment outcomes for neuropsychiatric disorders while being cost-effective and scalable, allowing for prolonged treatment sessions without the need for invasive procedures.
Implementation Method 1
a controller to selectively control current between sets of opposing electrodes through the patient brain to selectively stimulate a region of interest of the patient brain
Implementation Method 2
providing a first set of electrical current pulses across the region of interest using a first set of opposing electrodes and providing second and third sets of electrical current pulses across the region of interest
Data Source
AI summary
Neurostimulation devices and methods provide a plurality of electrodes placed around a patient head such that electrode have electrical paths through the brain to other electrodes. A controller controls current between sets of opposing electrodes through the patient brain to selectively stimulate a region of interest of the patient brain. Different sets of electrodes are used to provide electrical current pulse with different polarities such that a net potential is exposed to a region of interest in the brain that it above a neuron stimulation threshold while a net potential exposed to tissue outside the region of interest is below the threshold.