Neural event detection

A neural monitoring system for detecting an artificially-induced mechanical response of a muscle to an electrical stimulus provided within an intracorporeal treatment area of a human subject at a stimulation frequency, the intracorporeal treatment area including a nerve that innervates the muscle, the neural monitoring system comprising:

• a non-invasive mechanical sensor configured to be placed in mechanical communication with the muscle and to generate a mechanomyography output signal corresponding to a sensed mechanical movement of the muscle;
• and
• a processor in communication with the mechanical sensor and configured to:
• receive the mechanomyography output signal from the mechanical sensor;
• determine a fundamental frequency of the mechanomyography output signal;
• provide an indication of an artificially-induced mechanical muscle response to a user if the determined fundamental frequency is either equal to, or an integer multiple of the stimulation frequency.

A neural monitoring system for detecting an artificially-induced mechanical response of a muscle to an electrical stimulus provided within an intracorporeal treatment area of a human subject at a stimulation frequency, the intracorporeal treatment area including a nerve that innervates the muscle, the neural monitoring system comprising:

• a non-invasive mechanical sensor configured to be placed in mechanical communication with the muscle and to generate a mechanomyography output signal corresponding to a sensed mechanical movement of the muscle;
• and
• a processor in communication with the mechanical sensor and configured to:
• receive the mechanomyography output signal from the mechanical sensor;
• determine a frequency component of the mechanomyography output signal, wherein the frequency component has a peak magnitude relative to adjacent frequencies;
• and
• provide an indication of an artificially-induced mechanical muscle response to a user if the determined frequency component is either equal to, or an integer multiple of the stimulation frequency, and either:
• the determined frequency component is within the range of greater than 0 Hz to about 20 Hz;
• or
• the peak magnitude is above an established noise floor by a threshold amount.