# Opto-Electrical Cochlear Implants

> **NIH NIH R01** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $455,327

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Our goal is to develop an optical cochlear implant (oCI) that uses photons to stimulate surviving auditory
neurons in severely-to-profoundly deaf. The benefit of optical stimulation is its spatial selectivity with the
potential to create significantly more independent channels to encode acoustic information and to enhance the
CI users’ performance in challenging listening environments and to improve music appreciation. In previous
experiments we have defined the parameter space for infrared neural stimulation (INS) in diverse animal
models, including the cat. To translate the method into a clinical tool, an opto-electrical cochlear implant, we
have to convert the parameter space defined for the cats to the larger cochlea of the humans. In preparation of
the study we have communicated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have submitted a Q-
submission for a study risk assessment for the first set of the proposed tests. The purpose of this study is to
show that optical and combined opto-electrical stimulation is possible in humans using optical fibers, optical
fiber bundles, and a hybrid opto-electrical cochlear implant. Furthermore, the tests will also validate that INS is
possible at radiation wavelengths, which are used commercially in communication and for which the
technology of optical sources and waveguides is well miniaturized and matured. Most importantly, we will use a
forward masking method to validate the view that optical stimulation is spatially more selective than electrical
stimulation by comparing the ability of a masking stimulus to reduce the response amplitude of a probe
stimulus. Test subjects will be patients with large tumors of the skull base, who require a translabyrinthine
craniotomy for tumor removal. For this surgical approach the cochlea and vestibular system will be damaged
and the patients will be deaf after surgery. This surgery provides an unique opportunity to test optical
stimulation in the human cochlea before it is removed during the tumor resection. Important data can be
gathered, which will drive the development of an implantable opto-electrical cochlear implant system by our
industrial collaborators. The measurements will take no longer than 30 minutes per patient, after which all the
equipment will be removed from the surgical filed and the tumor resection surgery continues.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10122482
- **Project number:** 1R01DC018666-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** CLAUS-PETER RICHTER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $455,327
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-02-15 → 2026-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10122482

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10122482, Opto-Electrical Cochlear Implants (1R01DC018666-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10122482. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*