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

Binaural Cue Sensitivity in Children and Adults With Combined Electric and Acoustic Stimulation

Who can join

Ages 5 and older · All sexes · Healthy volunteers welcome

Inclusion Criteria:

1. 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).
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. No confounding diagnosis such as autism, auditory neuropathy, neurological disorder, or general cognitive impairment.
5. 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:

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

About the study

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.

What is being tested

• 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) (other)

Sponsor: Hearts for Hearing · Participants: 160 · Started: Dec 5, 2022

Contact the study team

• René Gifford, PhD · Phone: (405) 548-4300

Official record on ClinicalTrials.gov — NCT05923203

Locations in the U.S.

Conditions

• Hearing Loss

From ClinicalTrials.gov, data retrieved Sep 30, 2026. Each study sets its own eligibility; the study team decides who can join.