Patent ID: 8792978

Claim:
A method for stimulating neurons of a plurality of auditory nerve pathways of a person to provide sensations for the person, the plurality of auditory nerve pathways including a first auditory nerve pathway and a second auditory nerve pathway, the method comprising: generating a plurality of stimulation light signals, including a first stimulation light signal and a second stimulation light signal, that, when applied to a neuron of the person while the neuron is sensitized, each will stimulate a nerve action potential (NAP) in the neuron; generating a first electrical sensitizing signal, that, when applied to the neuron of the person, will sensitize the neuron to trigger a NAP in the neuron upon application of one or more of the plurality stimulation light signals to the neuron; delivering, during a first time period, the first electrical sensitizing signal to a plurality of neurons of the plurality of auditory nerve pathways of the person; delivering, during a second time period that starts after a start time of the first time period, the first stimulation light signal to one or more neurons of the first auditory nerve pathway of the person; delivering, during the second time period, the second stimulation light signal to one or more neurons of the second auditory nerve pathway of the person; selectively controlling the plurality of stimulation light signals to provide controlled optical stimulation in order to trigger NAPs in the one or more neurons in the first auditory nerve pathway independently from triggering NAPs in the one or more neurons in the second auditory nerve pathway; receiving an audio signal; determining whether a first temporal period of the received audio signal includes wideband audio-spectral content; and based on the determination of the wideband audio-spectral content, delivering an electrical-stimulation signal corresponding to the first temporal period to the plurality of auditory nerve pathways simultaneously, with sufficient current to trigger NAPs in the plurality of auditory nerve pathways without use of the light signals.