Assessment of a Method to Improve Cochlear Implant Users' Speech Perception in Noisy Environments While Maintaining Their Ability to Determine Where a Sound Originates From

January 6, 2026 updated by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Spatially Transparent Binaural Beamforming for Noise Reduction for Cochlear Implant Processors

The goal of this clinical trial is to determine if a new algorithm can improve speech perception for cochlear implant users. The main questions it aims to answer [is/are]:

  • Does the algorithm improve speech perception in noisy environments?
  • Does the algorithm allow listeners to determine where a sound is coming from?

Participants will

  • Listen to and repeat sentences presented in the presence of noise
  • Indicate the location that sounds originated from

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

25

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

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Champaign, Illinois, United States, 61820
        • Speech and Hearing Science Building
        • Contact:

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:

  • Participants must have bilateral cochlear implants from Cochlear or Advanced Bionics

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Non-native English speakers

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: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Speech perception and localization with different beamformers
Participants will listen to stimuli processed by different beamformer algorithms and repeat speech presented in noise and identify the location that sound originated from.
Device: Modifying audio input for cochlear implant processor
Sound will be preprocessed with different beamformer algorithms and presented either through the auxiliary input port or via a streaming device to the participants' cochlear implant processor

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percent correct scores on speech perception in noise.
Time Frame: Enrollment to 9 months
The speech perception in noise test consists of lists of sentences in the presence of multi-talker babble or diffuse noise. The target location will vary across conditions. Participants will need to repeat back as much of the target sentence as they can.
Enrollment to 9 months
Root mean square error for sound source localization
Time Frame: Enrollment to 9 months
The localization test will involve a target speaker in the presence of multi-speaker babble or diffuse noise. The virtual location of the sound sources will be manipulated and participants will need to indicate the location of the target speaker.
Enrollment to 9 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Collaborators

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Vortant Technologies, LLC

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 (Estimated)

January 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

August 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 6, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 6, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 7, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 7, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 6, 2026

Last Verified

December 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB25-0736
  • 1R43DC023172-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

The de-identified behavioral IPD from all experiments will be shared with the exception of pilot data.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

The data that will be shared will be made available no later than the time of an associated publication or one year after the end of the performance period.

Per the policies of the Illinois Data Bank, data will be available for at least five years after it is first shared.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Data that will be shared will be stored in the Illinois Data Bank, a data repository managed by the University of Illinois. The data will be publicly available via the Illinois Data Bank.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

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.

Clinical Trials on Cochlear Implant Users

Clinical Trials on Modifying audio input for cochlear implant processor

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

CROs by country

CROs in Bahamas

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Subscribe