Design of a closed-loop neurostimulation system for the treatment of cerebrovascular disorders

Resumen

This work is developed within the framework of the STRIKE project. This project is the result of a collaboration between the B105 Electronic Systems Lab of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, the Grupo de Neuro-computación y neuro-robótica of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the company Bioactive Surfaces S.L. This project aims to integrate three techniques during stroke recovery: mesenchymal cell implantation, transcranial magnetic stimulation and vagus nerve stimulation in the auricular branch.
The main objective of this Master's Thesis is the design of a closed-loop neurostimulation system capable of performing electrical stimulation and, simultaneously, the monitoring of physiological signals for the adaptive control of said stimulation.
To achieve this objective, four modules have been developed to constitute the system: an electrophysiological signal acquisition module, capable of acquiring biological signals such as the electrocardiogram or electroencephalogram; a signal processing module, responsible for the extraction and analysis of relevant parameters from the electrocardiogram signal; an electrical stimulation module in charge of implementing stimulation control strategies; and a device communication module, which enables the reception of acquired data and the updating of system parameters.
The development of the system has been carried out through the following phases: analysis of experimental data, design and validation of the processing algorithm, study of the available electronic devices, programming of the acquisition, stimulation and communications modules, the design and construction of a functional prototype and finally, the design of experiments and execution in different scenarios for the validation of the device.
The result is a preliminary adaptable and configurable neurostimulation system, which facilitates stimulation and control tasks in projects such as STRIKE.