Pseudospontaneous neural stimulation system and method

A signal processing apparatus and method for neural stimulation is provided that can generate stochastic independent activity across an excited nerve or neural population. High rate pulse trains, for example, can produce random spike patterns in auditory nerve fibers that are statistically similar to those produced by spontaneous activity in the normal ear. This activity is called "pseudospontaneous activity". Varying rates of pseudospontaneous activity can be created by varying the intensity of a fixed amplitude, high rate pulse train stimulus, e.g., 5000 pps. The pseudospontaneous activity can eliminate a major difference between acoustic- and electrical-derived hearing percepts. The pseudospontaneous activity can further desynchronize the nerve fiber population as a treatment for tinnitus.