Minimizing negative side-effects from electromagnetic neural stimulation: Key neurotechnology patent #39

Today we high­light a 2010 patent by Advanced Neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion Sys­tems address­ing a seri­ous con­cern dur­ing the use of elec­tro­mag­net­ic brain stim­u­la­tion methods–where unin­tend­ed stim­u­la­tion of neu­rons can cause seizures or migraine headaches.

U.S. Patent No. 7,831,305: Neur­al stim­u­la­tion sys­tem and method respon­sive to col­lat­er­al neur­al activity

• Assignee(s): Advanced Neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion Sys­tems, Inc.
• Inventor(s): Brad­ford E. Gliner
• Tech­nol­o­gy Cat­e­go­ry: Tran­scra­nial Stimulation
• Issue Date: Novem­ber 9, 2010

SharpBrains’ Take:

The ‘305 patent address­es a phe­nom­e­non occur­ring dur­ing elec­tro­mag­net­ic stim­u­la­tion treat­ments of neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tions, where unin­tend­ed stim­u­la­tion of neu­rons can cause unde­sir­able or col­lat­er­al activ­i­ty such as seizures or migraine headaches. Seizure activ­i­ty may start when a col­lec­tion of neu­rons known as the “seizure focus” exhib­it activ­i­ty that is not con­tained by adja­cent neu­rons known as “sur­round­ing inhi­bi­tion.” The ‘305 patent dis­clos­es detect­ing the col­lat­er­al activ­i­ty asso­ci­at­ed with stim­u­la­tion treat­ments (that may be due to lack of con­tain­ment) and respond­ing by either dis­con­tin­u­ing the stim­u­la­tion or apply­ing a sec­ondary stim­u­la­tion to mit­i­gate the col­lat­er­al effects. Despite hav­ing only one inde­pen­dent claim, the ‘305 patent address­es an impor­tant unin­tend­ed side effect of stim­u­la­tion treat­ment and broad­ly cov­ers the detec­tion and coun­ter­mea­sures to that side-effect, which con­tributes to mak­ing the ‘305 patent a key non-inva­sive neu­rotech­nol­o­gy patent.

Abstract:

A neur­al stim­u­la­tion sys­tem respon­sive to col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty that may arise in asso­ci­a­tion with a neur­al stim­u­la­tion pro­ce­dure includes a stim­u­la­tion inter­face con­fig­ured to deliv­er stim­u­la­tion sig­nals to a tar­get neur­al pop­u­la­tion, a mon­i­tor­ing inter­face posi­tioned to receive sig­nals cor­re­spond­ing to a neur­al activ­i­ty with­in the tar­get neur­al pop­u­la­tion, a stim­u­lus unit cou­pled to deliv­er stim­u­la­tion sig­nals to the stim­u­la­tion inter­face, and a sens­ing unit cou­pled to the mon­i­tor­ing device and the stim­u­lus unit. The neur­al stim­u­la­tion pro­ce­dure may be direct­ed toward reha­bil­i­tat­ing, restor­ing, and/or enhanc­ing one or more neur­al func­tions by facil­i­tat­ing and/or effec­tu­at­ing a neu­ro­plas­tic change or reor­ga­ni­za­tion; and/or affect­ing a neu­ro­log­i­cal con­di­tion that exists on a con­tin­u­ous or essen­tial­ly con­tin­u­ous basis absent the stim­u­la­tion pro­ce­dure. The sens­ing unit deter­mines whether evi­dence of an col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty exists, where­upon the stim­u­lus unit attempts to abate the col­lat­er­al neur­al activity.

Illus­tra­tive Claim 1. A neur­al stim­u­la­tion method, comprising:

• apply­ing a first elec­tri­cal stim­u­la­tion sig­nal to a tar­get neur­al pop­u­la­tion with­in a patient, the first elec­tri­cal stim­u­la­tion sig­nal direct­ed towards treat­ing pain or neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive disorders;
• deter­min­ing whether coun­ter­pro­duc­tive col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty exists, the coun­ter­pro­duc­tive col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty being induced by the first elec­tri­cal stim­u­la­tion sig­nal and includ­ing at least one of seizure activ­i­ty and migraine activ­i­ty; and
• respond­ing to the coun­ter­pro­duc­tive col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty when it is deter­mined to exist such that the coun­ter­pro­duc­tive col­lat­er­al neur­al activ­i­ty is inhibited.

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To learn more about mar­ket data, trends and lead­ing com­pa­nies in the dig­i­tal brain health space –dig­i­tal plat­forms for brain/ cog­ni­tive assess­ment, mon­i­tor­ing and enhance­ment– check out this mar­ket report. To learn more about our analy­sis of 10,000+ patent fil­ings, check out this IP & inno­va­tion neu­rotech report.