Multichannel cochlear implants. Channel interactions and processor design.

Multichannel electrical stimulation of the cochlear nerve can generate complex interactions between the individual channels. Two types of channel interactions have been investigated: those that occur when two or more electrode channels are simultaneously stimulated and those that occur when the stimuli from each channel are not temporally coincident. Experiments with three human subjects, implanted with scala tympani electrode arrays, indicate that responses are a strong function of the spacing between the channels, the subject, and the electrode geometry (ie, bipolar or monopolar geometries).