Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1991-03-01
1993-06-01
Kamm, William E.
Surgery
Truss
Pad
A61N 136
Patent
active
052150852
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve in the inner ear, as generically defined by the preamble to the independent claims.
From U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,696, an auditory prosthesis is known with which, via a multi-channel electrode in the cochlea in the inner ear, the auditory nerve is stimulated with a wide-band analog stimulation signal as well as with pulsed stimulation signals or in other words pulse signals, both signals being obtained from audio signals in a speech processor. The analog stimulation signal that is output, via a transmission channel, to an electrode, preferably in the apical region, provides the auditory nerve with the temporal information of the audio signal and thus substantially uses the principle of periodicity of audio signals. However, it was found that certain frequencies are reproduced at specific regions of the cochlea. That is, tonotopic information must also be included in the temporal pattern of the audio signals processed; this is generally known as the locational principle. To enable furnishing this information to the auditory nerve as well, in the known method of U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,696, at least one pulse signal is emitted to the same electrode, or to another electrode which is associated with a different speech parameter. Such speech parameters are the pitch and formants, for instance. These two parameters are also utilized in the known auditory prosthesis, so that pulse signals having the pitch or basic frequency and the frequency of the second formant, for instance, are output to the multiple electrode.
It has now been found that audition is improved, if at all, only slightly with such an additional pulse stimulation. In many cases, further impairment even occurred. Evidently the basic concept of furnishing tonotopic information in addition to the temporal information cannot be reduced to practice by this method. Instead, this kind of simultaneous stimulation of multiple channels creates mutual interference, which can basically be divided into two types: Because of the relatively high conductivity of the fluid in the cochlea, simultaneous multi-channel stimulation causes superimposition of the stimulation currents originating in the various electrodes. On the neuronal level, the excitation patterns originating in individual electrodes are superimposed, even in the case of nonsimultaneous stimulation.
German Patent 30 16 128 discloses a method and an apparatus for generating acoustical speech signals that are intelligible even to the extremely severely hearing-impaired and are intended to furnish high speech intelligibility. The acoustical signals, electrically converted in a microphone and broken down into a plurality of frequency bands by means of filters, that are to be transmitted are used in the form of the envelope curves of the output signals of the filters for modulating alternating voltages associated with the sounds, and these voltages are then carried along with the signals coming from the microphone to the hearer, after amplification. The signals are broken down into at least three frequency bands, and the modulated tones are used along with the total signal of the microphone; both the total loudness and the ratio between the loudness of the modulated tones and that of the original tones are adjusted to a magnitude tolerable to the hearing-impaired person. For voiced sounds, the modulated tones are at least sometimes switched off entirely. It is also possible to implant a hearing aid that is supplied with the prepared signals in wireless fashion. The hearing aid is equipped with a number of electrodes that are associated with the ends of the auditory nerve. In this method and apparatus, essentially only the temporal information of the audio signal is utilized; intelligibility is improved by the special treatment of the voice sounds. In this known device, the transmission of the total speech signal enables the hearing-impaired person to use the speech information available to him directly as well. Ofte
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Hochmair Erwin
Hochmair Ingeborg
Kamm William E.
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