Transcranial Stimulation Combined With Auditory Training

July 28, 2026 updated by: Boston University Charles River Campus

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if non-invasive brain stimulation (called transcranial stimulation) can enhance the benefits from auditory training in people who struggle to understand one talker when many people are talking at the same time. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Does transcranial stimulation improve speech-on-speech understanding in people who struggle with this task?
  • Does transcranial stimulation enhance the benefits of a commercially available auditory training program?

Researchers will compare transcranial stimulation to sham stimulation (no stimulation is applied during the listening task).

Participants will:

  • Receive login information to an online auditory training program to complete at home over 2 weeks
  • Visit the laboratory 4 times to receive transcranial stimulation while listening to speech-on-speech: once before at-home training, two times during the at-home training period, and once after at-home training has ended

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

94

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

  • Name: Elin Roverud, AuD, PhD
  • Phone Number: 617-358-7440
  • Email: erover@bu.edu

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02215
        • Recruiting
        • Communication Neuroscience Research Lab at Boston University
        • Contact:
          • Tyler Perrachione, PhD
          • Phone Number: 617-358-7410
          • Email: tkp@bu.edu
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Elin Roverud, AuD, PhD
        • Sub-Investigator:
          • Tyler Perrachione, PhD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • 50 years of age or older
  • Audiometric thresholds that do not exceed 90 dB HL at any frequency from 250-6000 Hz
  • Able to provide informed consent and understand experimental instructions
  • Able to read print on a computer screen
  • Difficulty with speech-on-speech understanding
  • Access to computer or mobile phone with access to internet that can play sound (for the at-home training)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-native speakers of English
  • History of skull fracture, scalp tissue damage, metallic implants around the head, seizures, neurological disorders, or traumatic brain injury, current or suspected pregnancy

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Active transcranial stimulation
This group will receive active transcranial alternating current stimulation that matches the envelope of the target speech.
Device: Transcranial current stimulation
The transcranial alternating current stimulation is delivered during the speech stimulus and the current matches the envelope of the target speech
Behavioral: Auditory training
An at-home auditory training program that adaptively and interactively trains the listener in degraded speech, cognitive skills, and communication strategies
Sham Comparator: Sham stimulation
This group will receive transcranial stimulation that ramps on and off before the speech is presented.
Behavioral: Auditory training
An at-home auditory training program that adaptively and interactively trains the listener in degraded speech, cognitive skills, and communication strategies

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Speech-on-speech intelligibility percent correct
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks
Percent correct score on the speech-on-speech task assessed in the lab
From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks
Pupillometry measured listening effort
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks
The peak pupil dilation subtracted from pre-trial baseline pupil dilation, averaged across trials in a block, assessed in the lab
From enrollment to the end of participation at 6 weeks
QuickSIN SNR Loss
Time Frame: Days 1, 6, and 14 of the two-week auditory training
A speech-in-noise test assessed as part of the at-home auditory training program
Days 1, 6, and 14 of the two-week auditory training
Hearing Handicap Inventory
Time Frame: Days 1 and 14 of the two-week auditory training program
A listening effort questionnaire given as part of the at-home auditory training program
Days 1 and 14 of the two-week auditory training program

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Boston University Charles River Campus

Collaborators

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Elin Roverud, AuD, PhD, Boston University Charles River Campus

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

November 7, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

December 9, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 12, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

December 17, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 29, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 28, 2026

Last Verified

July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 7799E
  • R21DC021763 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The complete archive of all de-identified (anonymized) experimental data will be made available via Boston University's institutional archive repository "OpenBU". This will include individual participant scores on tasks and pupil dilation data. The data will be labeled with a unique study ID.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

This data will be available no later than the end of the grant performance period (9/2026) and will be available indefinitely.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

This data will be accessible to anyone via the stable URL link managed by the BU library.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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