Improved neural representation of vowels in electric stimulation using desynchronizing pulse trains

Current cochlear implant processors poorly represent sound waveforms in the temporal discharge patterns of auditory-nerve fibers (ANFs). A previous study [Litvak et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 2079-2098 (2003)] showed that the temporal representation of sinusoidal stimuli can be improved in a majority of ANFs by encoding the stimuli as small modulations of a sustained, high-rate (5 kpps), desynchronizing pulse train (DPT). Here, these findings are extended to more complex stimuli by recording ANF responses to pulse trains modulated by bandpass filtered vowels. Responses to vowel modulators depended strongly on the discharge pattern evoked by the unmodulated DPT. ANFs that gave sustained responses to the DPT had period histograms that resembled the modulator waveform for low (< 5%) modulation depths. Spectra of period histograms contained peaks near the formant frequencies. In contrast, ANFs that gave a transient (< 1 min) response to the DPT poorly represented the formant frequencies. A model incorporating a linear modulation filter, a noisy threshold, and neural refractoriness predicts the shapes of period histograms for both types of fibers. These results suggest that a DPT-enhanced strategy may achieve good representation of the stimulus fine structure in the temporal discharge patterns of ANFs for frequencies up to 1000 Hz. It remains to be seen whether these temporal discharge patterns can be utilized by cochlear implant subjects.