Can eye movements reveal the hidden toll of hearing loss?
NCT ID NCT06516575
First seen Aug 13, 2026 · Last updated Aug 26, 2026 · Updated 3 times
Summary
This study investigates how people with hearing loss, including cochlear implant users, experience listening effort from moment to moment. Researchers will track eye movements and pupil dilation as participants repeat sentences that are manipulated to be harder to understand. The goal is to understand how effort builds, how long it lasts, and how it affects communication and daily life. Findings could inform strategies to reduce listening fatigue and improve support for those with hearing loss.
What this could mean
Our plain-language read of the trial. This is informational only, not medical advice or a prediction.
- Active substance
- Behavioral intervention involving sentence manipulations with noise-masked keywords or altered prosody, while tracking eye movements and pupil dilation
- What this could lead to
- If successful, this could lead to better ways to measure and reduce listening fatigue in people with hearing loss, improving communication and quality of life.
- What could go wrong
- This is an observational study, so it won't directly test a treatment. Results may not apply to all hearing loss situations, and measuring effort via pupil dilation is indirect.
This is an AI summary of the original study and may miss details. Read our disclaimer.
Study facts
What this study's own registry entry says, in plain language.
- Phase
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Not a phased trial
Phase numbers describe drug development. The registry uses this when they do not apply, as it does for trials of devices, procedures or behaviour changes, and for observational studies.
- Participants
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About 400 people
The number the study aims to enrol. It can still change while the study runs.
- Started
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Sep 2023
- Expected to finish
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Aug 2028
An estimate. End dates often move.
- Lead sponsor
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Other sponsor
The registry's catch-all category, for sponsors it does not file as a company, a government agency, or a research network.
Who can take part
This study's own entry requirements. Only the study team can say for certain whether you qualify.
- Ages
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18 to 75 years
- Sex
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Anyone
- Healthy volunteers
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Accepted
You do not need to have the condition being studied to take part.
Show the full entry requirements Hide the full entry requirements
Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.
Inclusion Criteria: To be eligible for this study, a participant must: * Be an adult between the age of 18 to 75 years * Have had normal hearing and speech/language development as a young child * For younger NH listeners: have normal audiometric thresholds below 25 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz * for cochlear implant listeners: at least 6 months experience with a cochlear implant * For older (55+ years) age-matched listeners with no cochlear implant: normal audiometric thresholds below 25 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 2000 Hz and thresholds below 35 dB HL (hearing level) between 4000 and 8000 Hz * For cochlear implant listeners: be able to recognize spoken words in English at a rate of at least 50% * Be a competent speaker of north American English * Lack language-learning or other cognitive disabilities * Lack of auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder Exclusion Criteria: * unable to fix gaze position * eye disease preventing typical changes in pupil dilation * lack of perceptual and productive fluency in English
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Conditions
The condition(s) this trial relates to.
As listed by the trial registrant
The condition terms exactly as the trial's registrant entered them.
How to take part
Only the study team decides who joins. These are the ways to reach them.
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The places running it
1 site. The list below names each one and where it is.
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The official record
ClinicalTrials.gov lists the study team's own contact details, including names and phone numbers. We don't republish those.
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A doctor treating you
A doctor who knows your case can contact a study site on your behalf, and can tell you whether this study is worth pursuing at all.
Contacts and locations
Locations
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University of Minnesota
RECRUITINGMinneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, United States
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