Objective: Charge injection through platinum neural stimulation electrodes is often constrained by the Shannon limit (Shannon 1992 IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Our mission is twofold: (1) find a way to safely inject more charge through platinum electrodes than the Shannon limit (k = 1.75) permits and (2) nurture an interest in the neural stimulation community to understand the electron transfer process occurring on neural stimulating electrodes.
Approach: We report here on measurements of the electrode potential, performed on platinum neural stimulating electrodes in the subcutaneous space of an anesthetized rat under neural stimulation conditions.
Objective: The Shannon model is often used to define an expected boundary between non-damaging and damaging modes of electrical neurostimulation. Numerous preclinical studies have been performed by manufacturers of neuromodulation devices using different animal models and a broad range of stimulation parameters while developing devices for clinical use. These studies are mostly absent from peer-reviewed literature, which may lead to this information being overlooked by the scientific community.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Neural prostheses employing platinum electrodes are often constrained by a charge/charge-density parameter known as the Shannon limit. In examining the relationship between charge injection and observed tissue damage, the electrochemistry at the electrode-tissue interface should be considered. The charge-storage capacity (CSC) is often used as a predictor of how much charge an electrode can inject during stimulation, but calculating charge from a steady-state i-E curve (cyclic voltammogram) over the water window misrepresents how electrodes operate during stimulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: It is currently unclear how the platinum (Pt) species released from platinum-containing stimulating electrodes may affect the health of the surrounding tissue. This study develops an effective system to assess the cytotoxicity of any electrode-liberated Pt over a short duration, to screen systems before future in vivo testing.
New Method: A platinum electrode was stimulated for two hours under physiologically relevant conditions to induce the liberation of Pt species.
Objective: Electrical neurostimulation has traditionally been limited to the use of charge-balanced waveforms. Charge-imbalanced and monophasic waveforms are not used to deliver clinical therapy, because it is believed that these stimulation paradigms may generate noxious electrochemical species that cause tissue damage.
Approach: In this study, we investigated the dissolution of platinum as one of such irreversible reactions over a range of charge densities up to 160 μC cm with current-controlled first phase, capacitive discharge second phase waveforms of both cathodic-first and anodic-first polarity.
The aim of this tutorial is to encourage members of the neuroprosthesis community to incorporate electron transfer processes into their thinking and provide them with the tools to do so when they design and work with neurostimulating devices. The focus of this article is on platinum because it is the most used electrode metal for devices in commercial use. The i(V e) profile or cyclic voltammogram contains information about electron transfer processes that can occur when the electrode-electrolyte interface, V e, is at a specific potential, and assumed to be near steady-state conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe application of a train of cathodic-first/charge-balanced/biphasic pulses applied to a platinum electrode resulted in a positive creep of the anodic phase potential that increases with increasing charge injection but reaches a steady-state value before 1000 pulses have been delivered. The increase follows from the fact that charge going into irreversible reactions occurring during the anodic phase must equal the charge going into irreversible reactions during the cathodic phase for charge-balanced pulses. In an oxygenated electrolyte the drift of the measured positive potential moved into the platinum oxidation region of the i(V e) profile when the charge injection level exceeds k = 1.
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