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We have proposed a Tripolar Electrode Stimulation Method (TESM) which may succeed in narrowing the stimulation region and continuously moving the stimulation site for cochlear implants. The TESM stimulates the auditory nerve array through lymphatic fluid by means of three adjacent electrodes selected from among an electrode array. Currents are emitted from the electrodes on each side and the central electrode receives them. The current received by the latter electrode is equal to the sum of the currents emitted from the electrodes on the two sides. In this paper, the electric intensity profiles produced by the TESM and by monopolar stimulation were measured in a human cadaver cochlea and in a saline solution. We found that in the TESM, the electric intensity profile produced in the human cadaver cochlea was about the same as that in the saline solution. In addition, in the TESM, the electric intensity profile was much sharper than that of monopolar stimulation in the human cadaver cochlea. Furthermore, the nervous excitation region could be localized in a certain range by means of TESM. © 1999 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 129(1): 1–9, 1999 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]