Investigators and Laboratories Available to T35 Trainees
This lab studies the development of short-term/working memory and characterizes the relationship between memory impairments and atypical language development, especially for children with Delayed Language Development and children with hearing loss.
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.
In our lab, we study how the brain learns language and what might be different in the case of a language disorder or language delay. We specifically study the brain's ability to learn patterns of information in the environment.
In the Language, Learning, and Memory Lab we study how children with typical development and developmental language disorder learn unfamiliar words. One branch of our research focuses on how children learn words and process familiar speech in the presence of background noise. The long-term goals of this line of work are to: 1. Understand how background noise in classrooms affects language learning and processing and 2. To identify strategies to support language learning and processing in background noise.
The lab uses multiple techniques, including brain imaging (MEG, fMRI) to determine the complex interactions between sensory experience, neural function and behavior. We are particularly interested in clarifying the impact of mild-to-severe hearing loss and the quality of therapeutic interventions (e.g., hearing aid use and audibility) on the neural dynamics that serve cognitive development in children and adolescents.
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.
The overall goal of the Etiologies of Language and Literacy Laboratory is to understand how our genes and environment influence language and literacy development so that we can help develop early identification methods for children at risk of language and literacy disorders.
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.
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.
