Cochlear implant design for better representation of basilar membrane mechanics

The performance of cochlear implants (CIs) is limited by the relatively low number of electrodes used. While CIs can perform adequately when emulating place codes, they cannot be used to convey detailed spatiotemporal codes. This makes it difficult to represent complex sounds that depend on the relative timing of events over a broad region of the basilar membrane. To address this problem it is likely that future implants will increase the number of electrodes. This paper presents analysis and results that may be used to decide how many electrodes would be suitable, in the context of improving pitch discrimination.