Cochlear Implants: Stimulation Sequences for Perception of Interaural Time Differences (StimSequ)
Objective
A recently developed stimulation strategy for cochlear implants attempts to encode temporal fine structure information, which is known to be important in perceiving pitch and interaural time differences (ITD). So-called "sequences" of pulses are triggered with each zero-crossing of the acoustic input waveform. It is expected that adaptation effects at the auditory nerve level limit the information flow. The goal of this project is to find optimum parameter values for this new stimulation strategy, which is intended to be applied in clinical applications.
Method
The effects of a parameter's pulse rate within each sequence, the number of sequences per second, and the temporal shape of the sequence on ITD perception are studied systematically.
Application
The optimum parameter values determined in the experiments are intended to be used in the clinical application of the new stimulation strategy.