Investigators and Laboratories Available to T35 Trainees
Research focuses on quantifying the aspects of perception, cognition, and linguistic knowledge that limit speech recognition in listeners with cochlear implants.
Work in this laboratory focuses on understanding the factors that influence the perception of complex sounds, including speech, by patients with cochlear implants.
The goal of the Vestibular and Balance Laboratory is to understand the developmental impact of vestibular loss in children. Studies in the lab have focused on the effects of pediatric vestibular loss, the prevalence of vestibular loss in children with hearing loss and safe, and effective methods of testing vestibular function in children.
Our lab studies genetic factors, language development, and health outcomes of multiple communication disorders. We have three on-going projects: 1) We are developing an online tool to measure speech, language, and reading skills in adults with communication disorders; 2) We are exploring the relationships between speech, hearing, and reading in children with cleft palate; and 3) We are examining health outcomes in All of Us for adults with communication disorders.
This research lab studies the development of auditory behavior in children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss, with a focus on understanding how infants and children with Down syndrome hear and recognize speech in the presence of background noise.
This research program is concerned with enhancing speech and language outcomes in children with hearing loss by improving audibility based predictions of speech recognition.
Our research focuses on auditory mechanics, understanding how pathologies that change auditory mechanics impact auditory perception, and advancing evidence-based practice through improved clinical diagnostic tools. The lab has a particular emphasis on conductive hearing loss, otitis media, pediatric populations, and wideband acoustic immittance. Our work uses a combination of standard clinical and experimental audiological measures and compares these assessments to characteristics of various pathologies.
Research is concerned with understanding the mechanisms by which the inner ear processes sound, using empirical studies and modeling work to gain better insights into cochlear function.
This lab studies the development of functional hearing, including spatial hearing and speech perception, in complex everyday indoor environments in children with normal hearing and those with cochlear implants.
The immediate goals of our team are to improve audiologic clinical assessment of individuals with Down syndrome across the lifespan and advance scientific theory in the study of functional hearing abilities in this population. Long-term improvements to public health are anticipated as auditory difficulties are identified and alleviated for individuals with Down syndrome allowing for successful participation in social, educational, and employment opportunities to the fullest extent.
In our lab, we study how listeners perceive auditory space and the particular kinds of acoustic information they use to do so. We use large arrays of loudspeakers to simulate different listening situations and virtual-reality technology to study the impacts of vision and audition on spatial awareness by typical and hearing-impaired listeners, as well as the spatial functions of hearing aids. Brain imaging studies allow us to map the brain regions involved in processing that information, and computer simulations of brain networks help us understand how sounds are transformed by the brain, the ear, and listening devices.
This lab studies language and literacy acquisition in children with hearing loss, with a focus on sound-based skills that impact academic outcomes, fatigue and sleep disturbance, and intervention development.
