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Combined Electric and Acoustic Hearing (EAS) in Children and Adults

Hearts for Hearing · with National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) · NCT05923203

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Opens the official ClinicalTrials.gov record, with the study team’s contacts. Bored Studies doesn’t enroll anyone.

Key facts

Compensation
Not posted. Ask the study team before screening.
Who can join
Ages 5+ · All sexes
Healthy volunteers
Accepted
Study type
Interventional · Not applicable
Target enrollment
160
US sites recruiting
3
Study start
December 5, 2022
Record last updated
October 20, 2025

Status re-checked against ClinicalTrials.gov within the last 12 hours.

What the study is about

Cochlear implants are surgically implanted devices which restore the ability to hear to the hearing impaired. Improvements in surgery and electrodes have results in an increased number of adults and children who have residual hearing and can benefit from electric and acoustic hearing in the same ear. This is called Electric Acoustic Stimulation (EAS). Many studies have shown that adult EAS users show significant benefits for speech understanding in noise and spatial hearing tasks as compared to a CI paired only with a contralateral HA. Even though this type of hearing is becoming more common, there is limited research on how it can be beneficial to children with CIs. The benefits of this study are a greater understanding of the participant's speech understanding, binaural processing, and spatial hearing. The results will help audiologists and researcher better understand how cochlear implants work, specifically when using electric and acoustic hearing in the same ear.

Being studied: Electric and acoustic stimulation (EAS) technology in the implanted ear(s)-this is the combination of a cochlear implant (CI) and hearing aid (HA) in the implanted ear(s)

Conditions: Cochlear Implant; Hearing Loss

Eligibility criteria

Copied from the official record. The study team makes the final decision at screening.

Show full criteria

Inclusion Criteria

  • Children aged 5 to 17 years of age with either normal hearing (n=40) or at least 1 cochlear implant (CI) and binaural low-frequency acoustic hearing (n=40); adults aged 18+ years with either normal hearing (n=40) or at least 1 CI and binaural low-frequency acoustic hearing (n=40).
  • Experimental participants must have at least one CI and bilateral mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss For CI participants, audiometric thresholds in the non-CI ear must be consistent with at least a mild sensorineural hearing loss; that is, the investigators will not be enrolling participants with single-sided deafness (SSD) For CI participants, unaided audiometric thresholds must be less than or equal to 80 dB HL for 125 and 250 Hz, in both ears.
  • Nonverbal cognitive abilities within the typical range for all participants; adult participants must also pass cognitive screening via Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA or HI-MoCA).
  • No confounding diagnosis such as autism, auditory neuropathy, neurological disorder, or general cognitive impairment.
  • Willingness to use EAS technology in the implanted ear(s) to be verified via data logging from cochlear implant and hearing aid software.

Exclusion Criteria

  • Nonverbal intelligence standard score \< 85 (for any participant).
  • MoCA or HI-MoCA score \< 26 for adult participants.

Recruiting US locations

  • Hearts for Hearing

    Edmond, OK 73120

    Site contact: René H Gifford, PhD · rene.gifford@heartsforhearing.org

  • University Of Texas at Austin

    Austin, TX 78712

    Site contact: Spencer Smith, PhD · spencer.smith@austin.utexas.edu

  • University Of Wisconsin Madison

    Madison, WI 53706

    Site contact: Shelly Godar · godar@waisman.wisc.edu

Study contacts (from the official record)

  • René Gifford, PhD · (405) 548-4300 · rene.gifford@heartsforhearing.org
  • Jourdan T Holder, AuD, PhD · jourdan.holder@heartsforhearing.org
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Combined Electric and Acoustic Hearing (EAS) in Children and Adults (NCT05923203) | Bored Studies