Advances in Non-Invasive Neuromodulation: Designing Closed-Loop Devices for Respiratory-Controlled Transcutaneous...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Devices

Background:

• Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) shows potential for treating epilepsy and depression.
• Synchronizing taVNS with respiration (exhalation-controlled) may enhance neuromodulation.
• Existing literature lacks a closed-loop system for real-time, integrated taVNS control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop real-time signal processing techniques for physiological data acquisition.
• To create an integrated closed-loop device for synchronized taVNS.
• To enable electrical stimulation during the patient's expiratory phase.

Main Methods:

• Designed and implemented real-time signal processing for respiratory cycle extraction and noise attenuation.
• Integrated sensors for physiological data acquisition.
• Developed modules for software control, remote operation, and data visualization.
• Assessed heart rate variability using linear statistical evaluation.

Main Results:

• The signal processing effectively extracted respiratory cycles and reduced noise.
• Respiratory peak detection accuracy reached 90%.
• Real-time processing introduced a delay of up to 150 ms for expiratory phase detection.
• A prototype feedback stimulator device was successfully constructed.

Conclusions:

• Preliminary results demonstrate promising accuracy for the developed closed-loop taVNS system.
• Further testing is needed to optimize real-time processing.
• Clinical studies are required to validate the prototype's efficacy in therapeutic applications.