Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2011 Oct;19(5):588-98. doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2011.2164937. Epub 2011 Aug 18.
In normal individuals, the vestibular labyrinths sense head movement and mediate reflexes that maintain stable gaze and posture. Bilateral loss of vestibular sensation causes chronic disequilibrium, oscillopsia, and postural instability. We describe a new multichannel vestibular prosthesis (MVP) intended to restore modulation of vestibular nerve activity with head rotation. The device comprises motion sensors to measure rotation and gravitoinertial acceleration, a microcontroller to calculate pulse timing, and stimulator units that deliver constant-current pulses to microelectrodes implanted in the labyrinth. This new MVP incorporates many improvements over previous prototypes, including a 50% decrease in implant size, a 50% decrease in power consumption, a new microelectrode array design meant to simplify implantation and reliably achieve selective nerve-electrode coupling, multiple current sources conferring ability to simultaneously stimulate on multiple electrodes, and circuitry for in vivo measurement of electrode impedances. We demonstrate the performance of this device through in vitro bench-top characterization and in vivo physiological experiments with a rhesus macaque monkey.
在正常个体中，前庭迷路感知头部运动，并介导反射，以维持稳定的注视和姿势。双侧前庭感觉丧失会导致慢性平衡失调、视震颤和姿势不稳定。我们描述了一种新的多通道前庭假体（MVP），旨在恢复头部旋转时前庭神经活动的调制。该设备包括运动传感器来测量旋转和重加速，微控制器来计算脉冲定时，以及刺激器单元，它们向植入迷路的微电极输送恒流脉冲。这种新的 MVP 与以前的原型相比有许多改进，包括植入物尺寸减小 50%，功耗降低 50%，新的微电极阵列设计旨在简化植入并可靠地实现选择性神经-电极耦合，多个电流源赋予同时刺激多个电极的能力，以及用于电极阻抗体内测量的电路。我们通过体外台式特性分析和恒河猴的体内生理实验来证明该设备的性能。
