Battelle Memorial Institute

David A Friedenberg

Samuel Colachis

Nicholas Annetta

Gaurav Sharma

Douglas E Boyd

Collin F Dunlap

Herbert S Bresler

Po-Hsu Chen

Ian W Baumgart

Chad Edward Bouton

Patrick Ganzer

Eric Meyers

Michael A Schwemmer

Justin Sanchez

Lauren Wengerd

Nicholas D Skomrock

Michael Darrow

Seyed Masoud Loeian

Doug Weber

Amanda Noonan

Herb S Bresler

Michael Schwemmer

A combined closed-loop functional electrical stimulation (FES) and Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy system for treating neurological injuries. Detected EMG signals are used to determine movement (or intended movement) of an extremity. FES is then delivered to help evoke the movement, and VNS is delivered to enhance neuroplasticity and recovery.

Pairing vagus nerve stimulation with EMG-controlled functional electrical stimulation to enhance neuroplasticity and recovery

The present disclosure relates generally to systems, methods, and devices for interpreting neural signals to determine a desired movement of a target, transmitting electrical signals to the target, and dynamically monitoring subsequent neural signals or movement of the target to change the signal being delivered if necessary, so that the desired movement is achieved. In particular, the neural signals are decoded using a feature extractor, decoder(s) and a body state observer to determine the electrical signals that should be sent.

Systems for neural bridging of the nervous system

A functional electrical stimulation (FES) device includes electrodes arranged to apply functional electrical stimulation to a body part of the user. FES stimulation is performed by: receiving values of a set of user metrics for the user; receiving a target position of the body part represented as values for a set of body part position measurements; determining a user-specific energization pattern for producing the target position based on the received target position and the received values of the set of user metrics for the user; and energizing the electrodes of the FES device in accordance with the determined user-specific energization pattern. The determination may utilize an FES calibration database with records having fields containing: values of the set of user metrics for reference users; energization patterns; and values of the set of body part position metrics for positions assumed by the body part in response to applying the energization patterns.

Calibration of electrode-to-muscle mapping for functional electrical stimulation

A non-invasive control system for neuromuscular stimulation includes an eye-tracking device, an electrical stimulation device, and software that interprets the eye movements of the user to determine an intended movement and sends electrical signal(s) to the stimulation device to achieve the intended movement. For example, the stimulation device may be a sleeve with electrodes worn on a paralyzed limb, with the intended movement being the movement of the limb.

Non-invasive eye-tracking control of neuromuscular stimulation system

At least one electrical brain signal is received from a patient and is demultiplexed into an efferent motor intention signal and at least one afferent sensory signal (such as an afferent touch sense signal and/or an afferent proprioception signal). A functional electrical stimulation (FES) device is controlled to apply FES to control a paralyzed portion of the patient that is paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury of the patient. The controlling of the FES device is based on at least the efferent motor intention signal. A demultiplexed afferent touch sense signal may be used to control a haptic device. The afferent sensory signal(s) may be used to adjust the FES control.

Motor function neural control interface for spinal cord injury patients

A brain-computer interface (BCI) includes a multichannel stimulator and a decoder. The multichannel stimulator is operatively connected to deliver stimulation pulses to a functional electrical stimulation (FES) device to control delivery of FES to an anatomical region. The decoder is operatively connected to receive at least one neural signal from at least one electrode operatively connected with a motor cortex. The decoder controls the multichannel stimulator based on the received at least one neural signal. The decoder comprises a computer programmed to process the received at least one neural signal using a deep neural network. The decoder may include a long short-term memory (LSTM) layer outputting to a convolutional layer in turn outputting to at least one fully connected neural network layer. The decoder may be updated by unsupervised updating. The decoder may be extended to include additional functions by transfer learning.

Meeting brain-computer interface user performance expectations using a deep neural network decoding framework

A portable and wearable hand-grasp neuro-orthosis is configured for use in a home environment to restore volitionally controlled grasp functions for a subject with a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). The neuro-orthosis may include: a wearable sleeve with electrodes; electronics for operating the wearable sleeve to perform functional electrical stimulation (FES) and electromyography (EMG), the electronics configured for mounting on a wheelchair; and a controller configured for mounting on a wheelchair. The controller controls the electronics to read EMG via the sleeve, decode the read EMG to determine an intent of the user, and operate the electronics to apply FES via the sleeve to implement the intent of the user. The neuro-orthosis may restore hand function. The controller may include a display arranged to be viewed by the subject, for example mounted on an articulated arm attached to the wheelchair.

Portable and wearable hand-grasp neuro-orthosis

A device is provided for delivering somatosensation. A garment is wearable on a body part, and includes an array of electrodes in electrical contact with skin of the body part when the garment is worn on the body part. An electronics module is configured to use the array of electrodes of the garment to apply a somatosensation pattern providing guidance in performing a motor action, or providing a pain sensation to the wearer.

Delivery of somatosensation for medical diagnostics or guiding motor action

Systems and methods for neural bridging of the nervous system

A communications radio includes an array of electrodes configured to be disposed on a body part, a radio transceiver, an electrical stimulation transmitter, electromyography (EMG) receive circuitry, and a data processing sub-module which configured to perform radio communication. The communication includes, using the electrical stimulation transmitter and the array of electrodes, presenting semantic messages received via the radio transceiver as electrical stimulation patterns. The communication further includes, via the radio transmitter, transmitting semantic messages determined from EMG signals measured using the array of electrodes and the EMG receive circuitry. The communications radio may further include a garment wearable on the body part with the array of electrodes in electrical contact with skin of the body part.

Non-verbal communications radio and non-verbal communication system using a plurality of nonverbal communication radios

Closed-loop stimulation of the Vagus nerve in response to a detected myocardial ischemia state within a therapeutic window can mitigate or reverse effects of the ischemia. This window is between 0 and 50 seconds of the onset of ischemia, before the myocardial ischemia reaches a statistically significant evolution level. A properly trained machine learning system such as a long short-term memory system can be used to analyze cardiovascular features and detect myocardial ischemia within the therapeutic window.

Growing community of inventors

Columbus, OH, United States of America

David A Friedenberg