Cochlear implant systems and methods for electrical cochlea stimulation

Abstract

An exemplary cochlear implant system comprises an electrode array comprising a plurality of stimulation electrodes; a frequency filtering unit configured to divide an input audio signal into a plurality of input signal channels; and a stimulation control unit configured to generate from the plurality of input signal channels a dedicated stimulation signal for each of a plurality of stimulation channels, each stimulation channel being associated with one of the electrodes. The stimulation control unit is further configured to provide at least a subgroup of electrodes with stimulation signals, each of which is windowed in such a manner that at a time only to one of the electrodes of the subgroup, or only to non-adjacent electrodes of the subgroup, an active window is awarded during which the respective electrode is supplied with stimulation current. The stimulation signals of the electrode subgroup comprise (i) analog waveforms or wavelets which each correspond to a waveform of the input signal of a respective input signal channel associated with the respective stimulation channel, or (ii) pulse trains having an amplitude modulated by an amplitude of a waveform of the input signal of a respective input signal channel associated with the respective stimulation channel.