Rate and place of stimulation matched to instantaneous frequency

A system for generating electrical stimulation signals to stimulation contacts in an implanted cochlear implant electrode array, the arrangement comprising:

• a signal filter bank configured to decompose an input sound signal into a plurality of dominant psychophysically relevant frequency components, with each frequency component changing over time in frequency and level;
• a signal processing module configured to code each frequency component as a patient-specific, frequency-specific function of stimulation location, rate, and level to produce a sequence of requested stimulation events having an instantaneous frequency and level with an electrode pitch match via level-dependent combined rate-location matching;
• and
• a pulse generator configured to generate the electrical stimulation signals from the requested stimulation events for delivery by the stimulation contacts to adjacent auditory neural tissue.

A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having instructions thereon for generating electrical stimulation signals to stimulation contacts in an implanted cochlear implant electrode array, the instructions comprising:

• decomposing an input sound signal into a plurality of dominant psychophysically relevant frequency components, with each frequency component changing over time in frequency and level;
• coding each frequency component as a patient-specific, frequency-specific function of stimulation location, rate, and level to produce a sequence of requested stimulation events having an instantaneous frequency and level with an electrode pitch match via level-dependent combined rate-location matching;
• and
• generating the electrical stimulation signals from the requested stimulation events for delivery by the stimulation contacts to adjacent auditory neural tissue.