Patent ID: 7326181

Claim:
A method for evoking neuroselective responses from nervous tissue using electronic or electromagnetic stimulation that does not leave a sufficient voltage or electrical artifact on the tissue being stimulated that would interfere or prevent a monitoring system from recording the physiological response and which is also substantially painless in case the nervous tissue is in a living organism, or a method of in situ monitoring of nerve responses for evaluating the response to a therapeutic intervention, or a method for therapeutic nervous tissue stimulation including augmenting or attenuating normal or impaired nerve function, comprising attaching an electrode of an apparatus to the nervous tissue, the apparatus comprising an electrode which can be applied to nervous tissue of a patient effective for application thereto of electronic or electromagnetic stimulation having a waveform a controller for controlling the waveform, duration and intensity of an electronic or electromagnetic stimulation that is applied to nervous tissues through said electrode and does not leave a sufficient voltage or electrical artifact on the tissue being stimulated that would interfere or prevent a monitoring component from recording a physiological response of said tissue to said stimulation, and a monitoring component that monitors the physiological response of said nervous tissue, the apparatus a) being capable of generating an electronic or electromagnetic stimulation that has a single 180° or 360° sine waveform, or b) being capable of generating an of electronic or electromagnetic sine wave stimulation that has a duration of less than 200 ms, providing a stimulation that has a single 180° or 360° sine waveform, or a sine wave form with a duration of less than 200 ms, with said apparatus, and monitoring the physiological response of the nervous tissue with said apparatus.