METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY ACTIVATING CELLS BY APPLYING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS IN A SPATIAL PATTERN

• US 20130204341A1
• Filed: 07/12/2011
• Published: 08/08/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Alan M. Litke, Eduardo-Jose Chichilnisky, Lauren Jepson, Pawel Hottowy, Wladyslaw Dabrowski
• Original Assignee: Alan M. Litke, Eduardo-Jose Chichilnisky, Lauren Jepson, Pawel Hottowy, Wladyslaw Dabrowski
• Inventors: Chichilnisky, Eduardo-Jose, Jepson, Lauren, Hottowy, Pawel, Dabrowski, Wladyslaw, Litke, Alan M.
• Application Number:
  US13/809,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20130204341A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 607/137
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0541 Cochlear electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/0543 Retinal electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36038 Cochlear stimulation
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/36046 of the eye
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 5/06 using light
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 999/99 dummy group

Abstract

A method and apparatus for applying electrical signals in specific spatial patterns to selectively activate sensory cells. The method comprises interfacing a population of cells with two or more electrodes, identifying target cells within the population to activate by electrical signals; and applying electrical signals in a spatial pattern to the population via the electrodes, such that the target cells are selectively activated in the desired spatial pattern.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

interfacing a population of cells with two or more electrodes;

identifying target cells within the population to activate by electrical signals; and

applying electrical signals in a spatial pattern to the population via the electrodes, wherein the target cells are activated.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the population of cells comprise sensory cells.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensory cells are retinal ganglion cells.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the sensory cells are neurons of the scala tympani.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein activation of the target cells transmits sensory stimuli.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the sensory stimuli comprise visual stimuli, auditory stimuli, olfactory stimuli, mechanoreceptive stimuli, or nociceptive stimuli.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrodes comprise a primary electrode and one or more secondary electrodes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the spatial pattern is derived from a linear model.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the linear model determines how electrical signals from multiple electrodes will sum together to activate a cell.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the electrodes comprise a primary electrode and one or more secondary electrodes.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the probability of a cell activating in response to electrical signals passed through a primary electrode and two or more secondary electrodes is modeled using a linear equation (1):

P=f(I₀+λ

₁I₁+λ

₂I₂+ . . . +λ

_nI_n)

wherein I_i is the current passed through the i^th electrode, and λ

_i is the sensitivity of the cell to the i^th secondary electrode.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the current passed through the primary electrode I₀ is represented by equation (2):

I₀=f<sup>−

1</sup>(0.5)−

λ

₁I₁−

λ

₂I₂−

. . . −

λ

_nI_n

wherein f<sup>−

1</sup>(0.5) is the activation threshold using the primary electrode alone.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the electrodes are configured for a sensory neural prosthesis for a subject.

14. An electrode array for a sensory neural prosthesis comprising:

two or more electrodes;

wherein the array is configured to interface with a population of sensory cells of a subject and apply electrical signals in a spatial pattern to the population via the electrodes, wherein target cells within the population are activated by electrical signals from the array.

15. The array of claim 14, wherein the sensory cells are retinal ganglion cells.

16. The array of claim 14, wherein the sensory cells are neurons of the scala tympani.

17. The array of claim 14, wherein activation of the target cells transmits sensory stimuli.

18. The array of claim 17, wherein the sensory stimuli comprise visual stimuli, auditory stimuli, olfactory stimuli, mechanoreceptive stimuli, or nociceptive stimuli.

19. The array of claim 14, wherein the electrodes comprise a primary electrode and one or more secondary electrodes.

20. The array of claim 14, wherein the spatial pattern is derived from a linear model.

21. The array of claim 20, wherein the linear model determines how electrical signals from multiple electrodes will sum together to activate a cell.