Division of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
J Neural Eng. 2020 Jun 12;17(3):036027. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/ab8342.
To explore the impact of different electrical stimulation profiles in human recipients of the Geneva-Maastricht vestibular implant prototypes.
Four implanted patients were recruited for this study. We investigated the relative efficacy of systematic variations of the electrical stimulus profile (phase duration, pulse rate, baseline level, modulation depth) in evoking vestibulo-ocular (eVOR) and perceptual responses.
Shorter phase durations and, to a lesser extent, slower pulse rates allowed maximizing the electrical dynamic range available for eliciting a wider range of intensities of vestibular percepts. When either the phase duration or the pulse rate was held constant, current modulation depth was the factor that had the most significant impact on peak velocity of the eVOR.
Our results identified important parametric variations that influence the measured responses. Furthermore, we observed that not all vestibular pathways seem equally sensitive to the electrical stimulus when the electrodes are placed in the semicircular canals and monopolar stimulation is used. This opens the door to evaluating new stimulation strategies for a vestibular implant, and suggests the possibility of selectively activating one vestibular pathway or the other in order to optimize rehabilitation outcomes.
探索不同电刺激模式对日内瓦-马斯特里赫特前庭植入体原型的人类接受者的影响。
本研究招募了 4 名植入患者。我们研究了系统改变电刺激模式（相位持续时间、脉冲率、基线水平、调制深度）对诱发前庭眼动（eVOR）和知觉反应的相对效果。
较短的相位持续时间，在较小程度上较慢的脉冲率，允许最大限度地利用可用的电动态范围，以诱发更广泛范围的前庭感觉强度。当相位持续时间或脉冲率保持不变时，电流调制深度是对 eVOR 峰值速度影响最大的因素。
我们的结果确定了影响测量结果的重要参数变化。此外，我们观察到，当电极放置在半规管中并使用单极刺激时，并非所有前庭通路似乎对电刺激同样敏感。这为评估前庭植入的新刺激策略打开了大门，并表明有可能选择性地激活一个或另一个前庭通路，以优化康复效果。
