Cochlear implant devices

• US 20060052840A1
• Filed: 11/03/2005
• Published: 03/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/1993
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Melbourne
• Original Assignee: University of Melbourne
• Inventors: Clark, Graeme Milbourne, Cohen, Lawrence Thomas, Busby, Peter Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 7,627,377 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/56
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36038 Cochlear stimulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/502 using analog signal processing

Abstract

An improved hearing prosthetic implant and method of stimulating are disclosed. The method comprises stimulating an electrode array using a set of current stimuli having different geometries, so as to provide a more regular and monotonic set of pitch percepts for a user. In one embodiment, this may be achieved by combining different modes of stimulation for a patient, so that some channels utilise one mode and other channels utilise one or more different modes

Claims

1-10. -10. (canceled)

11. A method of stimulating a hearing prosthetic implant, said hearing prosthetic implant comprising a plurality of individually addressable electrodes, including electrodes of a first group defining a first current distribution geometry and electrodes of a second group defining a second current distribution geometry, said hearing prosthetic implant further comprising a stimulator device adapted to provide stimuli to said first and second groups corresponding to sound signals, said method comprising the steps of stimulating a hearing prosthetic implant by:

applying a first stimuli to said first group of individually addressable electrodes in response to a first sound signal having a first pitch; and

applying a second stimuli to said second group of individually addressable electrodes in response to a second sound signal having a second pitch different from said first pitch of said first sound signal.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said first and second stimuli are applied using respective first and a second modes of stimulation.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said modes of stimulation are selected from the stimulation group consisting of monopolar, bipolar, variable polar, and common ground modes of stimulation.

14. The method of claim 11, where said group of electrodes uses a plurality of modes of stimulation, each mode generating a different one of said current distribution geometries.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein said different current distribution geometries are induced by one or a combination of factors selected from the group comprising:

selection of different modes of stimulation; and

use of different electrode geometries.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein one or more electrodes in said first group of electrodes have a differing geometry than one or more electrodes in said second group of electrodes.

17. A method of stimulating a hearing prosthetic implant having a plurality of individually addressable electrodes, said method comprising the steps of:

applying, in response to a sound signal having a first pitch, stimuli to a first group of electrodes in accordance with a first current distribution geometry; and

applying, in response to a sound signal having a second pitch, stimuli to a second group of electrodes in accordance with a second current distribution geometry.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said modes of stimulation are selected from the stimulation group consisting of monopolar, bipolar, variable polar, and common ground modes of stimulation.

19. A method of configuring a hearing prosthesis used to treat a particular patient, said hearing prosthesis including a plurality of individually addressable electrodes and a stimulation device adapted to provide electrical stimuli to selected groups of said individually addressable electrodes in accordance with an instruction set, each group of individually addressable electrodes defining a specific current distribution geometry, said method comprising the steps of:

generating at least two test signals defining a frequency band;

stimulating the patient'"'"'s aural nerve by applying said test signals to each of said group of individually addressable electrodes using at least one stimulation mode;

measuring responses of the patient to the test signals;

adjusting members of said individually addressable electrodes in said selected group so as to produce an optimal response to the respective test signal from said group to create an optimized group;

repeating said adjusting step for each frequency band of interest; and

setting said instruction set to assign respective optimized groups to respective frequency bands.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising applying stimuli to said optimized groups in accordance with modes of stimulation, each mode corresponding to a matching pair of optimized groups.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said mode of stimulation are selected from the stimulation group consisting of monopolar, bipolar, variable polar and common ground modes of stimulation, and any combination thereof.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein said stimulation step utilizes more than one stimulation mode, each mode generating a different one of said current distribution geometries;

23. The method of claim 19, comprising determining said optimal responses by stimulating progressively more apical electrodes to obtain a monotonically decreasing pitch precept.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein different modes of stimulation are applied respectively to each group, said modes being selected to define a substantially linear response as a function of said test signals.