Stimulating the Cochlear Apex Without Longer Electrodes

The most common cochlear implant intervention provides an electrode array that stimulates less than half of the length of the cochlea, leaving the regions which represent lower frequencies in the normally functioning ear unstimulated. Providing stimulation over the entire cochlea has the potential to improve speech understanding, sound quality, as well as spectral and temporal representation. Increasing the length of the electrode array to cover a greater portion of the cochlea has many potential issues, including increased damage to the cochlea and probability of incomplete insertions. In this study, a new technique is being investigated that allows stimulation across the entire cochlear extent without increasing the length of the electrode array. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the benefit of the new technique on speech understanding outcomes. Additionally, the study will investigate the new configuration to explore how the auditory system encodes temporal and spectral information.

NCT Number	NCT06901674
Lead Sponsor	NYU Langone Health Collaborators: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Conditions	Deafness With a Cochlear Implant
Enrollment	40 participants
Start Date	2022-08-01
Primary Completion	2027-01-01 (estimated)
Study Completion	2027-01-01 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-03-06