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Much of the hospital's success in identifying and treating children with hearing loss is the result of the rapid transfer of research findings from laboratories to clinic and bedside.

Areas of Research

Walt Jesteadt
Curriculum Vita


Present Position:

Director of Research
Boys Town National Research Hospital
555 North 30 th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68131

Education:

Johns Hopkins University, B.A., 1966, Psychology
University of Pittsburgh, Ph.D., 1971, Psychology
Harvard University, Post Doctorate, 1974, Psychology

Professional Experience:

1972 - 1973

Assistant Research Professor of Audiology, Dept. Otolaryngology, Univ. of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA

1974-1976

Research Fellow, Dept. of Psychology & Social Relations, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA

1976 - 1986

Coordinator, Psychoacoustics Laboratory, Boys Town Nat'l Research Hospital, Omaha, NE

1977 - 1980

Asst. Professor, Dept. Otolaryngol. & Human Commun., Creighton Univ. Sch. of Med., Omaha, NE

1980 - 1985

Associate Professor, same as above

1985 - 2002 Professor, same as above

1983-1984

Visiting Scientist, Research Laboratory of Electronics, MIT, Cambridge, MA

1986

Director of Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, NE

1989

Director, Center for Hearing Research, same as above

2002 -

Professor, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Creighton Univ. Sch. of Med., Omaha, NE


Professional activities, honors and memberships

NIH Postdoctoral Fellow (1975-76); American Men and Women of Science (1977-present); Fellow of Acoustical Society of America (1986); Charter Fellow, Am. Psycholog. Soc. (1989); NIDCD Pepper Award (1989-96); Member, Technical Committee, Psycholog. & Physiolog. Acoust., Acoust. Soc. Am. (1982-85, 1990-93); Member of Hearing Science Study Section (Oct. 1990 - June 1994), Ad hoc member (June 1984, 1989); Associate Editor, Psychological Acoustics, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. (1994-97); Editorial Consultant: J. Speech Hear. Res. (1986-90); J. Speech Hear. Disord. (1986-90); Ad hoc reviewer: J. Acoust. Soc. Am., Percept. Psychophys., J. Exp. Psychol., Hearing Res., Air Force Office of Scientific Res., NSF, NIH-NIDCD.

Memberships

Acoust. Soc. America; Assoc. Res. Otolaryngol.; Psychonomic Soc.; Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci.; Am. Psychol. Soc.; Am. Speech-Language-Hearing Assoc.; Sigma Xi; Fellow, Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1998-present.

Selected Peer-Reviewed and Relevant Publications

Jesteadt, W. & Norton, S.J. (1985). The role of suppression in psychophysical measures of frequency selectivity. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 365-374.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Jesteadt, W., Gorga, M.P. & Mott, J. (1985). Speech perception ability and psychophysical tuning curves in hearing-impaired listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 77, 620-627.

Marshall, L. & Jesteadt, W. (1986). Comparison of pure-tone audibility thresholds obtained with audiological and two-interval forced-choice procedures. J. Speech Hear. Res. 29, 82-91.

Bacon, S.P. & Jesteadt, W. (1987). Effects of pure-tone forward masker duration on psychophysical measures of frequency selectivity. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 82, 1925-1932.

Gorga, M.P, Reiland, J., Beauchaine, K., Worthington, D. & Jesteadt, W. (1987). Auditory brainstem responses from graduates of an intensive care nursery: normal patterns of response. J. Speech Hear. Res. 30, 311-318.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Lewis, D.E., Larson, L.L. & Jesteadt, W. (1987). Growth of masking as measure of response growth in hearing-impaired listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 81, 1881-1887.

Gorga, M.P., Kaminski, J.K., Beauchaine, K.A. & Jesteadt, W. (1988). Auditory brainstem responses to tone bursts in normally hearing subjects. J. Speech Hear. Res. 31, 87-97.

Neely, S.T., Norton, S.J., Gorga, M.P. & Jesteadt, W. (1988). Latency of auditory brainstem responses and otoacoustic emissions using tone burst stimuli. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 652-656.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Beauchaine, K., Kalberer, A., Langer, T. & Jesteadt, W. (1988). Reliability of auditory thresholds in the 8- to 20-kHz range using a prototype audiometer. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1528-35.

Gorga, M., Kaminski, J., Beauchaine, K., Jesteadt, W. & Neely, S. (1989). Auditory brainstem responses from children 3 months to 3 years of age: Normal patterns of response II. J. Speech Hear. Res. 32, 281-88.

Humes, L.E. & Jesteadt, W. (1989). Models of the additivity of masking. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 1285-94.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Beauchaine, K.A., Kalberer, A. & Jesteadt, W. (1989). Normative thresholds in the 8- to 20-kHz range as a function of age. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 86, 1384-1391.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Beauchaine, K., Kalberer, A., Kelly, W.J. & Jesteadt, W. (1989). High-frequency audiometry: Test reliability and procedural considerations. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 879-887.

Stelmachowicz, P.G., Lewis, D.E., Kelly, W.J. & Jesteadt, W. (1990). Speech perception in low-pass filtered noise in normal and hearing-impaired listeners. J. Speech Hear. Res. 33, 290-297.

Humes, L.E. & Jesteadt, W. (1991). Modeling the interaction between noise exposure and other variables. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 182-188.

Humes, L.E. & Jesteadt, W. (1991). Models of the effects of threshold on loudness growth and summation, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 1933-1943.

Humes, L.E., Jesteadt, W. & Lee, L.W. (1992). Modeling the effects of sensorineural hearing loss on audi­tory perception. In Y. Cazals (Ed.), Auditory Perception and Physiology, Oxford: Pergamon Press, pp 617-624.

Humes, L.E., Lee, L. & Jesteadt, W.(1992). Two experiments on the spectral boundary conditions for nonlinear additivity of simultaneous masking. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 92, 2598-2606.

Gorga, M.P., Neely, S.T., Bergman, B.M., Beauchaine, K.L., Kaminski, J.R., Peters, J. & Jesteadt, W. (1993). Otoacoustic emissions from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects: Distortion product responses. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 2050-2060.

Gorga, M.P., Neely, S.T., Bergman, B.M., Beauchaine, K.L., Kaminski, J.R., Peters, J., Schulte, L. & Jesteadt, W. (1993). A comparison of transient-evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emissions in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. J. Acoust. Soc. Am.94, 2639-2648.

Neff, D.L., Dethlefs, T.M. & Jesteadt, W. (1993). Informational masking for multicomponent maskers with spectral gaps. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 3112-3126.

Prieve, B.A., Gorga, M.P., Schmidt, A., Neely, S.T., Peters, J., Schulte, L. & Jesteadt, W. (1993). Analysis of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired ears. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 93, 3308-3319.

Hedrick, M.S., Schulte, L. & Jesteadt, W. (1995). Effect of relative and overall amplitude on perception of voiceless stop consonants by listeners with normal and impaired hearing. J. Acoust. Soc. Am.98, 1292-03.

Neff, D.L. & Jesteadt, W. (1996). Intensity discrimination in the presence of random-frequency, multi­component maskers and broadband noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 100(4), 2289-2298.

Hedrick, M.S. & Jesteadt, W. (1997). Influence of relative amplitude and presentation level on perception of the /p/-/t/ stop consonant contrast by normal and impaired listeners. In W. Jesteadt (Ed.), Modeling Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum, pp. 475-486.

Jesteadt, W. (Editor) (1997). Modeling Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Jesteadt, W., Neff, D.L., Humes, L. & Leek, M.R. (1997). Modeling hearing loss as an additional source of masking. In W. Jesteadt (Ed.), Modeling Sensorineural Hearing Loss. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, pp. 289-306.

Dai, H., Neely, S.T., Neff, D.L. & Jesteadt, W. (2001). Temporal integration models: Implications for psychometric functions for detecting level increments. In A.J.M. Houtsma, A. Kohlrausch, V.F. Prijs & R. Schoonhoven (Eds.), Proceedings of the XIIth International Symposium on Hearing: Physiological and Psychophysical Bases of Auditory Function. Shaker Publ. BV, Maastricht, The Netherlands, pp. 51-58.

Nizami, L., Reimer, J. & Jesteadt, W. (2001). The intensity-difference limen for Gaussian-enveloped stimuli as a function of level: Tones and broadband noise. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 2505-2515.

Nizami, L., Reimer, J. & Jesteadt, W. (2002). The mid-level hump at 2 kHz. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 112, 642-653.

Jesteadt, W., Nizami, L. & Schairer, K. (2003). A measure of internal noise based on sample discrimina­tion. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 114, 2147-2157.

Schairer, K., Nizami, L., Reimer, J. & Jesteadt, W. (2003). Effects of peripheral nonlinearity on psycho­metric functions for forward-masked tones. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 113, 1560-1573.

Jesteadt, W. (2005). The variance of d' estimates obtained in yes-no and two-interval forced choice procedures. Percept. Psychophys.67(1), 72-80.

Jesteadt, W., Schairer, K. & Neff, D.L. (2005). Effect of variability in level on forward masking and increment detection. J. Acoust. Soc. Am.118, 325-337.

Neely, S.T., Schairer, K. & Jesteadt, W. (2005). Estimates of cochlear compression from measurements of loudness growth. In D. Pressnitzer, A. deCheveigne, S. McAdams & L. Collet (Eds.), Auditory Signal Processing: Physiology, Psychoacoustics and Models. Springer, New York, pp. 42-48.


Research Support (ongoing or completed during the last 3 years).
Ongoing

5 P30 DC04662-05 Jesteadt (CC Dir) 09/26/01-08/31/06
NIH-NIDCD
Core Center: Administration
The Core Center meets current and anticipated needs in three areas: 1) laboratory computing; 2) use of transgenic and knockout mouse models; and 3) recruitment of human subjects.
Role: Core Center Director

1 R01 DC006648-01 Jesteadt (PI) 12/01/04-11/30/09
NIH-NIDCD
Decision Processes in Detection and Discrimination
The goal of this research program is to develop a better understanding of fundamental aspects of human hearing by characterizing differences in decision processes for three tasks that use the same basic stimuli in different temporal configurations: intensity discrimination, increment detection, and forward masking.
Role: Principal Investigator

5 R01 DC02251-11 Gorga (PI) 07/01/04-06/30/09
NIH-NIDCD
Cochlear Nonlinearity and Auditory Function in Humans
The goal of this research program is to use noninvasive techniques to gain a better understanding of cochlear nonlinearity in humans with normal hearing and with hearing loss.
Role: Co-Investigator

5 R01 DC003784-07 Keefe (PI) 05/01/04-02/28/09
NIH-NIDCD
Acoustic Responses of the Human Cochlea and Middle Ear
The primary goal of this application is to use a combination of acoustic and behavioral responses to test theories of auditory processing at the mechanical and behavioral levels. A subordinate goal is to relate acoustic responses measured non-invasively in the ear canal to cochlear and middle-ear function.
Role: Co-Investigator

2 T32 DC00013-26 Jesteadt (Prog. Dir.) 07/01/05-06/30/10
NIH-NIDCD
Research in Human Communication and its Disorders
This grant provides institutional training support for three postdoctoral fellows.
Role: Program Director

5 R01 DC04559-05 Jesteadt (PI) 09/01/00-08/31/06 (no-cost ext.)
NIH-NIDCD
Improving Speech Intervention for Deaf Children
The long-range goal of this project is to develop intervention practices that will optimize speech production outcomes for prelingually deafened children, particularly those with cochlear implants.
Role: Principal Investigator

Completed:

5 R01 DC00136-23 Jesteadt (PI) 04/01/97-03/31/03 (no-cost ext.)
NIH-NIDCD
Combinations of Masking and Sensorineural Hearing Loss
The specific aims are to develop a better quantitative description of the additional masking observed in listeners with normal hearing and of the elevated masked thresholds observed in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss, to achieve a better understanding of the role of additional masking in temporal analysis, frequency analysis, intensity discrimination and loudness. The title has been changed in this application.
Role: Principal Investigator

1 P20 RR018788-01 Smith (Prog. Dir.), Walsh (PI) 09/30/03-06/30/08
NIH (Subcontract with UNMC)
The Molecular Biology of Neurosensory Systems--Core A: Administration
 The goal is to coordinate administration of the COBRE grant by UNMC, BTNRH and Creighton University.
Role: Subcontract Co-Investigator of Core A

5 P01 DC00215-17 Warr & Morley (PI) 02/01/98-01/31/04 (no-cost ext.)
NIH-NIDCD
Neurobiology of the Auditory System - Core A: Administration
The administration core provides support for the program-project grant, which has a total of three projects and three cores. The position of Program Director and PI for Core A was transferred to Dr. Warr in 2000.
Role: Program Director & Principal Investigator

5 P01 DC00215-17 McGee (PI) 02/01/98-01/31/04 (no-cost ext.)
NIH-NIDCD
Neurobiology of the Auditory System - Core B: Technical Support
The technical core provides hardware and software support for all projects through two major BTNRH support groups, the Electronics Shop and the Laboratory Computer Facility. Dr. McGee now serves as PI for Core B.
Role: Principal Investigator

1 R41 DC006607-01 Keefe (PI) 05/01/04-12/31/04 (no-cost ext.)
NIH-STTR
Otoreflectance Assessment of Middle-Ear Functioning
This proposal is aimed at developing wideband acoustic reflectance technology suitable for use in clinical diagnostic and screening applications.
Role: Subcontract Principal Investigator

5 U01 DC03209-05 Brookhouser (PI) 04/15/97-03/31/03
NIH-NIDCD (Subcontract with AAO, Alexandria, VA)
Otolaryngology Clinical Trials Cooperative Group
This grant provides support for a Clinical Trials Cooperative Group with the goal of mounting a series of multi-center trials. It will terminate after completion of the current AIED trial.
Role: Co-Investigator