A thin-film multichannel electrode for muscle recording and stimulation in neuroprosthetics applications
File(s)Muceli_2019_J._Neural_Eng._16_026035.pdf (1.09 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Objective. We propose, design and test a novel thin-film multichannel electrode that can be used for both recording from and stimulating a muscle in acute implants. Approach. The system is built on a substrate of polyimide and contains 12 recording and three stimulation sites made of platinum. The structure is 420 µm wide, 20 µm thick and embeds the recording and stimulation contacts on the two sides of the polyimide over an approximate length of 2 cm. We show representative applications in healthy individuals as well as tremor patients. The designed system was tested by a psychometric characterization of the stimulation contacts in six tremor patients and three healthy individuals determining the perception threshold and current limit as well as the success rate in discriminating elicited sensations (electrotactile feedback). Also, we investigated the possibility of using the intramuscular electrode for reducing tremor in one patient by electrical stimulation delivered with timing based on the electromyographic activity recorded with the same electrode. Main results. In the tremor patients, the current corresponding to the perception threshold and the current limit were 0.7 ± 0.2 and 1.4 ± 0.7 mA for the wrist flexor muscles and 0.4 ± 0.2 and 1.5 ± 0.7 mA for the extensors. In one patient, closed-loop stimulation resulted in a decrease of the tremor power >50%. In healthy individuals the perception threshold and current limits were 0.9 ± 0.6 and 2.1 ± 0.6 mA for the extensor carpi radialis muscle. The subjects could distinguish four or six stimulation patterns (two or three stimulation sites × two stimulation current amplitudes) with true positive rate >80% (two subjects) and >60% (one subject), respectively. Significance. The proposed electrode provides a compact multichannel interface for recording electromyogram and delivering electrical stimulation in applications such as neuroprostheses for tremor suppression and closed-loop myoelectric prostheses.
Date Issued
2019-02-27
Date Acceptance
2019-02-05
Citation
Journal of Neural Engineering, 2019, 16 (2)
ISSN
1741-2552
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Neural Engineering
Volume
16
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Sponsor
Commission of European Communities
Grant Number
779982
Subjects
Intramuscular electrode
electrical stimulation
neuroprosthesis
sensory feedback
tremor
0903 Biomedical Engineering
1103 Clinical Sciences
1109 Neurosciences
Biomedical Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
026035
Date Publish Online
2019-02-05