Multichannel Optogenetic Stimulation and Inhibition

An optogenetic signal processing system for an auditory prosthesis with an intracochlear array of a plurality of optical stimulation sources implanted in a patient having auditory neurons genetically modified with light sensitive ion channels, the system comprising:

• a preprocessor filter bank configured to generate a plurality of band pass signals, each band pass signal representing a given band of audio frequencies and associated with a set of corresponding auditory neurons, wherein each band pass signal has characteristic temporal fine structure features;
• a stimulation timer configured to generate stimulation timing signals for the corresponding auditory neurons for each band pass signal based on the characteristic temporal fine structure features, wherein the stimulation timing signals include:
• i. one or more channel opening signals adapted to open the ion channels of the corresponding auditory neurons to activate neural excitation, and
• ii. one or more channel closing signals adapted to close the ion channels of the corresponding ion channels to inhibit neural excitation;
• and
• a pulse generator configured to generate optical stimulation signals for the optical stimulation sources based on the stimulation timing signals.

A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having instructions thereon for optogenetic signal processing for an auditory prosthesis with an intracochlear array of a plurality of optical stimulation sources implanted in a patient having auditory neurons genetically modified with light sensitive ion channels, the instructions comprising:

• processing an input sound signal to generate a plurality of band pass signals, each band pass signal representing a given band of audio frequencies and associated with a set of corresponding auditory neurons, wherein each band pass signal has characteristic temporal fine structure features;
• generating stimulation timing signals for the corresponding auditory neurons for each band pass signal based on the characteristic temporal fine structure features, wherein the stimulation timing signals include:
• i. one or more channel opening signals adapted to open the ion channels of the corresponding auditory neurons to activate neural excitation, and
• ii. one or more channel closing signals adapted to close the ion channels of the corresponding ion channels to inhibit neural excitation;
• and
• producing optical stimulation signals for the optical stimulation sources based on the stimulation timing signals.