UC Irvine Seeking CI Users for Research

I’m sharing this message from a graduate student at UC Irvine Hearing and Speech Lab, who is looking for cochlear implant users for his research. You won’t have to do much except sit there with a funky sensor cap on (see image below), and will be paid $10 an hour plus gas mileage:

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the head shapes electrical fields produced by cochlear implants. The aim is to help improve medical devices that use electrical stimulation to treat hearing-related and various neurological disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy).

Participants will be fitted with an EEG recording cap containing sensors that measure the electrical activity from the brain, as well as from cochlear implants. They will then be seated comfortably and allowed to read or watch a subtitled movie while a custom stimulation pattern is delivered to their CIs. The stimulation will be presented below hearing level or at a comfortably low level. In addition, participants may also opt to receive safe amounts of low-intensity electrical stimulation at their head, which can then measured by their CI. This will also be presented below any level of sensation.

Testing sessions will take about 4 hours with breaks. There is compensation of $10/hour plus gas mileage ($0.55/mile). While not necessary, it would be especially helpful to the study if participants have available CT scans taken after their implantation.

If interested, contact:

Matthew Richardson
Graduate Student (Ph.D.)
email: mlrichar@…
phone: (661) 492-3776