A method includes the steps of calculating a power spectrum from an auditory stimulus, filtering the power spectrum to obtain an effective power spectrum, calculating an intensity pattern from the effective power spectrum, calculating a median intensity pattern from the intensity pattern, determining an initial set of pruned detector locations, examining the initial set of pruned detector locations to determine an enhanced set of pruned detector locations, and calculating an excitation pattern from the effective power spectrum using the enhanced set of pruned detector locations. By determining the enhanced set of pruned detector locations from the initial set of pruned detector locations and computing the excitation pattern therefrom, the computational complexity of the above method can be significantly reduced when compared to conventional approaches while maintaining the accuracy thereof.