Recording and analysis of electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) with MED-EL cochlear implants and different artifact reduction strategies in Matlab.

Electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) are used in auditory research to evaluate the response of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation. Animal preparations are typically used for the recording. With the introduction of a new generation of cochlear implants, however it is possible to record the response of the auditory nerve to electrical stimulation in humans as well, which is used in the clinic to test whether the implant works properly and whether the auditory nerve is responsive. Currently, ECAPs are used to estimate thresholds for speech processor programs. In addition, ECAPs recordings allow new research to be addressed, e.g., to evaluate enhanced electrical stimulation patterns. Research platforms are required to test user-defined stimuli and algorithms for the ECAPs analysis. Clinical fitting software that records ECAPs is not flexible enough for this purpose. To enable a larger group of scientists to pursue research in this field, we introduce a flexible setup that allows to change stimulation and recording parameters. ECAP recording and analysis software was developed in Matlab (The Mathworks, Inc.) for standard PC, using a National instruments (PCI-6533, National Instruments, Austin, TX) card and a Research Interface Box 2 (RIB2, Department of Ion Physics and Applied Physics at the University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria) for MED-EL cochlear implants. ECAP recordings of a human subject with three different artifact reduction methods (alternating, Miller modified masker-probe, triphasic pulses) are presented and compared.