Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20090125081 | Cochlear Implant Stimulation Artifacts - An artifact monitoring stimulation system and corresponding method are described. An implantable electrode stimulator applies an electrical stimulation pulse to target tissue using implantable electrode contacts. An artifact monitor module monitors the electrode contacts during and after the stimulation pulse to observe an artifact signal resulting from the stimulation pulse to determine a operating characteristic associated with the stimulation system, the stimulated tissue and/or electrode-electrolyte interface properties. | 05-14-2009 |
20090138062 | Method for fitting a bone anchored hearing aid to a user and bone anchored bone conduction hearing aid system - The invention regards a method for programming a hearing aid wherein the hearing aid user is initially tested by subjecting the user to air borne sound and/or to bone transmitted vibrations, and based on the test results a bone conducting hearing threshold of a bone integrated bone conducting hearing aid is calculated, and further a bone conducting hearing aid is chosen and applied to a skin penetrating abutment which is firmly attached to a bone integrated fixture in the skull bone of the hearing aid user. According to the invention the vibrator in the chosen hearing aid is caused to vibrate at different frequencies and vibration levels and feed-back from the hearing aid user is obtained in order to obtain knowledge of the hearing aid users experienced hearing threshold with the attached hearing aid and finally the experienced hearing threshold is used to fine tune this same hearing aid for future wearing by the user. | 05-28-2009 |
20090149916 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HAIR CELL STIMULATION USING ACOUSTIC SIGNALS - A method for hair cell stimulation includes determining a frequency band corresponding to damaged hair cell region in accordance with a preset algorithm, determining the frequency band corresponding to the damaged hair cell region as a target frequency band, and outputting an acoustic signal with given intensity to the target frequency band so as to stimulate the damaged hair cell region. The method treats hearing loss by acoustic signal. | 06-11-2009 |
20090182391 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR APPLYING NEURAL STIMULATION TO A PATIENT - Systems and methods for neural stimulation may include a stimulus unit; a first electrode assembly having a first set of contacts; and a second set of contacts. The stimulus unit can be an implantable pulse generator including a first terminal that can be biased at a first signal polarity and a second terminal that can be biased at a second signal polarity. The first electrode assembly includes a support member configured to be placed at the stimulation site, the first set of contacts carried by the support member, and a first lead configured to be attached to the first terminal of the implantable pulse generator for biasing the surface contacts at the first polarity. The second set of contacts is detached from the surface electrode assembly. The second set of contacts can be one or more conductive elements fixed to or forming portions of the implantable pulse generator, or a separate electrode array. | 07-16-2009 |
20090204177 | MAINTAINING LOW IMPEDANCE OF ELECTRODES - An implantable tissue-stimulating device for an implantee comprising: an elongate member, and at least one electrode disposed on the elongate member, wherein at least a portion of the device is coated, prior to implantation in the implantee, with a coating configured to at least partially inhibit adhesion of body tissue to the device following implantation, and wherein the coating is removable, after implantation, by an electrochemical cleaning process during which potential of one or more of the at least one electrode is increased and then decreased. | 08-13-2009 |
20100069996 | Stimulus Artifact Removal for Neuronal Recordings - A method is described for processing a waveform signal containing a stimulus artifact and one or more neuronal action potentials. An electrical stimulation signal is derived based on satisfying a cost function comparison with a plurality of known neuronal action potential waveforms. | 03-18-2010 |
20100121411 | Tinnitus Suppressing Cochlear Implant - An implantable device and corresponding method for suppression of tinnitus are described. An implantable signal processing module develops a stimulation signal for application to audio sensing tissue of the user. The signal processing module includes a tinnitus suppression mode in which the stimulation signal is unrelated to environmental sound near the user. | 05-13-2010 |
20100137941 | TRANSFORMABLE SPEECH PROCESSOR MODULE FOR A HEARING PROSTHESIS - An external component of a cochlear implant hearing system. The external component includes a speech processor module operable in a stand-alone mode of operation and a body-worn mode of operation, a protective case configured to have said speech processor module removably mounted therein; and an operational mode controller configured to determine when said speech processor module is mounted in said case and to place said speech processor module in said body-worn mode of operation when said module is mounted in said case. | 06-03-2010 |
20100228320 | Metallic Implant with Reduced Secondary Electron Generation - An implant includes a housing and at least one electronic component. The housing is made of a first material and has an outer surface and an inner surface. The shield is positioned within the housing proximate the inner surface, the shield made of a second material. The second material has an atomic number greater than the atomic number of the first material. | 09-09-2010 |
20100292758 | OPTICAL STIMULATION OF THE BRAINSTEM AND/OR MIDBRAIN, INCLUDING AUDITORY AREAS - Apparatus and method for optical- or optical-and-electrical stimulation of midbrain and/or brainstem tissue (e.g., auditory nerve pathways). Peripheral neural stimulation using infrared lasers has been demonstrated in several systems; however, optical stimulation of the central nervous system (CNS) has not been previously described. In some embodiments of the present invention, radiant energy exposure of the cochlear nucleus using a mid-wavelength infrared laser generates optically-evoked auditory brainstem responses (oABRs). In an experiment, the cochlear nuclei of adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed using a suboccipital craniotomy approach. In one embodiment, different regions of left cochlear nucleus were acutely stimulated with a 200- or 400-micron-diameter optical fiber placed on the surface of the brainstem, using 50- to 750-microsecond pulses of 1849-nm to 1865-nm-wavelength radiation at a rate of 10 to 40 Hz and power levels ranging from 10% to 80% of 5 watts. oABRs were recorded during the period of optical stimulation. | 11-18-2010 |
20110257702 | SELF-ASSEMBLED MONOLAYER COATING ON ELECTRICALLY CONDUCTIVE REGIONS OF A MEDICAL IMPLANT - A medical implant having an electrically conductive region for stimulating tissue of a user or patient. The electrically conductive region is coated with a self assembled monolayer (SAM) which at least inhibits the attachment of impedance-inducing material such as protein, cells or fibrous tissue, to the electrically conductive region. | 10-20-2011 |
20130085549 | Hearing Prosthesis with Accessory Detection - The present application discloses hearing prostheses with two modes of operation and methods for operating the prostheses. In the first mode of operation, a hearing prosthesis receives a microphone input and produces an output based on the microphone input. In the second mode of operation, the hearing prosthesis may detect an accessory input signal and switch to an accessory input mode. The second mode of operation may produce an output that is based at least in part on the accessory input signal. Some embodiments may include detecting an accessory input signal with a detector. In response to detecting an accessory input signal, the hearing prosthesis may switch to an accessory operation mode. When the accessory input signal is not detected, the hearing prosthesis may operate in microphone operation mode. | 04-04-2013 |
20130289653 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND DEVICES FOR TREATING TINNITUS WITH VNS PAIRING - A method of treating tinnitus comprising measuring a patient's hearing, determining the patient's hearing loss and the patient's tinnitus frequency using the measurements of the patient's hearing, programming a clinical controller with the measurements of the patient's hearing, selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones, where the therapeutic tones are selected to be at least a half-octave above or below of the patient's tinnitus frequency, setting an appropriate volume for each of the plurality of tones, repetitively playing each of the plurality of therapeutic tones, and pairing a vagus nerve stimulation pulse train with each playing of a therapeutic tone, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus. | 10-31-2013 |
20140257430 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND DEVICES FOR TREATING TINNITUS WITH VNS PAIRING - A method of treating tinnitus comprising measuring a patient's hearing, determining the patient's hearing loss and the patient's tinnitus frequency using the measurements of the patient's hearing, programming a clinical controller with the measurements of the patient's hearing, selecting a plurality of therapeutic tones, where the therapeutic tones are selected to be at least a half-octave above or below of the patient's tinnitus frequency, setting an appropriate volume for each of the plurality of tones, repetitively playing each of the plurality of therapeutic tones, and pairing a vagus nerve stimulation pulse train with each playing of a therapeutic tone, thereby reducing the patient's perception of tinnitus. | 09-11-2014 |
20140277274 | DEVICE AND CIRCUITRY FOR CONTROLLING DELIVERY OF STIMULATION SIGNALS - Some embodiments relate to a device for generating stimulation signals, comprising: a stimulation delivery circuit; a first component to monitor charge delivered in at least one charge pulse via the stimulation delivery circuit; and a second component to ensure delivered charge substantially corresponds to charge of a charge pulse intended to be delivered by the stimulation delivery circuit. In some embodiments, the device may further comprise a charge setting circuit responsive to a charge pulse setting signal, such as a constant current of fixed pulse width, to set the charge of the charge pulse intended to be delivered. | 09-18-2014 |
20150297891 | Systems and Methods for Optimizing a Compliance Voltage of an Auditory Prosthesis - An exemplary sound processor 1) sets a current steering range for a stimulation channel defined by first and second physical electrodes communicatively coupled to an auditory prosthesis to be less than an entire physical range of the stimulation channel, 2) maps each frequency included in a frequency band associated with the stimulation channel to a virtual electrode included in a plurality of virtual electrodes included in the current steering range of the stimulation channel, 3) identifies a feature of an audio signal, 4) identifies a virtual electrode included in the plurality of virtual electrodes and that is associated with the identified feature, and 5) directs the auditory prosthesis to apply electrical stimulation representative of the identified feature to a stimulation site associated with the identified virtual electrode by concurrently stimulating the first physical electrode with a first current level and the second physical electrode with a second current level. | 10-22-2015 |