INDIVIDUALLY OPTIMIZED PERFORMANCE OF OPTICALLY STIMULATING COCHLEAR IMPLANTS

Method and apparatus for optically stimulating neurons of a plurality of auditory nerve pathways of a person to provide auditory sensations for the person including generating a plurality of pulsed light signals having one or more successive pulses; delivering the plurality of pulsed light signals to one or more auditory nerve pathways of the cochlea of the person; selectively controlling the plurality of light signals to optically stimulate and trigger nerve action potentials (NAPs) in the one or more auditory nerve pathways, wherein the selectively controlling includes empirically testing the delivering of the plurality of light signals and determining which optical-stimulation parameters used during the testing are most effective for optically stimulating the auditory nerve pathways of the person, and using results of the testing such that the delivering includes delivering the plurality of light signals with the optical-stimulation parameters that were determined to be most effective for optically stimulating.