Processor controlled voltage-current analysis for nerve and muscle tissues

1. A device for controlling a voltage potential from a tissue membrane, said device comprising:

an input circuit that receives a membrane voltage potential from an electrode;

an output circuit that receives an output command signal and injects a current output signal directly to said electrode without going through any hardware switch; and

a digital signal processor coupled to both the input circuit and the output circuit, said digital signal processor for providing said output command signal in the form of discrete pulses, and for permitting reception of said membrane voltage signal from said input circuit at any of a plurality of reception times during a delay period at a sample rate following providing said output command signal.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said delay period is adaptive to said input membrane potential and is between about 1 sample and about 10 samples, and wherein the sample rate is about 1 MHz.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said delay period is adaptive between about 1 microsecond and about 10 microseconds.

4. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said input circuit and said output circuit are directly coupled together at the electrode without going through any hardware switch.

5. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said digital signal processor continuously samples input signals and selectively uses an input signal for feedback control immediately after the delay period to avoid the transient caused by the previous current feedback pulse.

6. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said device provides at least one of a voltage clamp, a current clamp, a dynamic clamp, or a patch clamp.

7. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein software in said digital signal processor selectively bypasses periodic transients caused by the injected current pulse thereby time-multiplexing an input and an output in a single electrode without using a hardware switch.

8. The device as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said digital signal processor provides a sampling rate on the order of about 1 MHz.

9. A device for controlling a voltage potential from a tissue membrane, said device comprising:

an input circuit that receives a membrane voltage potential from an electrode at a first node;

an output circuit that receives an output command signal and injects a current output signal directly to said electrode at the first node without going through any hardware switch; and

a digital signal processor coupled to both the input circuit and the output circuit, said digital signal processor for providing said output command signal in the form of discrete pulses, and for permitting reception of said membrane voltage signal from said input circuit at any of a plurality of reception times during a delay period at a sample rate that provides the plurality of reception time during the delay period including and following providing said output command signal.

10. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said delay period is adaptive to said input membrane potential and is between about 1 sample and about 10 samples, and wherein the sample rate is about 1 MHz.

11. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said delay period is adaptive between about 1 microsecond and about 10 microseconds.

12. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said digital signal processor continuously samples input signals and selectively uses an input signal for feedback control immediately after the delay period to avoid transients caused by a previous feedback output pulse.

13. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said device provides at least one of a voltage clamp, a current clamp, a dynamic clamp, or a patch clamp.

14. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein software in said digital signal processor selectively bypasses periodical transients caused by the injected current pulse, thereby time-multiplexing input and output in a single electrode without using any hardware switch.

15. The device as claimed in claim 9 , wherein said digital signal processor provides a sampling rate of about 1 MHz.

16. A method for controlling a voltage potential from a tissue membrane, said method comprising the steps of:

providing an output command signal from a digital signal processor to an output circuit;

injecting a current output signal directly to an electrode at a first node from the output circuit responsive to the output command signal without going through any hardware switch;

permitting reception of a membrane voltage potential from the electrode at the first node at each of a plurality of reception times during a delay period at a sample rate that provides the plurality of reception times during the delay period following providing the current output signal to the electrode;

selecting from the plurality of reception times a selected reception time for receiving the membrane voltage potential from the electrode; and

providing the membrane voltage potential to the digital signal.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein said delay period is adaptive to said input membrane potential and is between about 1 sample and about 10 samples.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein said delay period is adaptive between about 1 microsecond and about 10 microseconds.

19. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein said digital signal processor continuously samples input signals and selectively uses an input signal for feedback control immediately after the delay period to avoid transients caused by a previous current feedback output pulse.

20. The method as claimed in claim 16 , wherein the sampling rate is on the order of about 1 MHz.