The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 02, 1995
Filed:
Jun. 03, 1993
David J Edell, Lexington, MA (US);
John L Wyatt, Jr, Sudbury, MA (US);
Joseph Rizzo, III, Boston, MA (US);
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
The invention provides a method for preferentially stimulating neural somas over neural axons located around the somas but not integral with the somas. In the invention, a positive electrical pulse is applied to a region of neural tissue consisting of one or more neural somas to be stimulated and neural axons, and due to the physiology of the somas, they are preferentially stimulated by the electrical pulse over the neural axons not integral with the somas to be stimulated. The preferential soma stimulation provided by the invention achieves the advantage of locally focusing external stimulation such that it may be directed to particular soma locations for indicating location-dependent sensory information. Thus the pulse scheme of the invention may be employed in prosthetic applications directed to, for example, the retinal ganglia neural tissue.