A neurostimulator system (170) stimulates excitable muscle or neural
tissue through multiple electrodes (E1, E2, . . . En) fast enough to
induce stochastic neural firing, thereby acting to restore "spontaneous"
neural activity. The type of stimulation provided by the neurostimulator
involves the use of a high rate, e.g., greater than about 2000 Hz,
pulsatile stimulation signal generated by a high rate pulse generator
(172). The stream of pulses generated by the high rate pulse generator is
amplitude modulated in an output driver circuit (176) with control
information, provided by a modulation control element (178). Such
amplitude-modulated pulsatile stimulation exploits the subtle electro
physiological differences between cells comprising excitable tissue in
order to desynchronize action potentials within the population of
excitable tissue. Such desynchronization induces a wider distribution of
population thresholds, as well as a wider electrical dynamic range,
thereby better mimicking biological recruitment characteristics.