Anthony N. Burkitt The Bionic Ear Institute, Melbourne Models of auditory neural processing for building the next generation of cochlear implants for the hearing impaired Wednesday 3rd May 14:05-14:55pm, Carslaw Building Room 373. The application of mathematical, engineering and computational techniques to the study of biological neural systems has provided us with a greater understanding of how the brain and nervous system processes information. This has led to important advances in biomimetics (artificial systems that mimic the behaviour and function of biological systems) and neural prostheses (the artificial stimulation of neurons to restore function). This talk will focus upon the application of these principles to a new generation of cochlear implants, which enable the restoration of hearing by the electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve via an electrode array in the inner ear (cochlea). The fine-grained timing information of the neural responses plays an important role.