Current Projects

Top-down control of selective amplification

Supported by NIH R01 DC013286 (Gerald Kidd, Jr., Ph.D., Principal Investigator)
This project aims to evaluate how a new type of hearing aid performs in listening situations that are complex and uncertain. The “visually-guided hearing aid” (VGHA) consists of one or more acoustic beamformers that are steered by eye gaze. The potential benefits of this system are studied in listeners with normal hearing, with sensorineural hearing loss, with cochlear implants, and in persons with aphasia.

Central factors in auditory masking

Supported by NIH R01 DC004545 (Gerald Kidd, Jr., Ph.D., Principal Investigator)
The primary goal of this project is to obtain a better understanding of the relative contributions of peripheral and central factors in auditory masking, especially as it relates to the “cocktail party problem.” This listening situation typically involves segregating, selectively attending, and extracting information from one particular sound source (e.g., a specific human voice) in the midst of competing/masking talkers or other unwanted sources of sound. This line of work examines the mechanisms of masking in listeners with normal hearing and with hearing loss.

Spatial hearing in speech mixtures

Supported by NIH R01 DC015760 (Virginia Best, Ph.D., Principal Investigator)
This project aims to determine the contribution of “spatial” and “non-spatial” factors to the communication difficulties of listeners with sensorineural hearing loss in multi-talker mixtures. This distinction is important for focusing efforts to develop new hearing devices that provide a benefit in real-world situations.

Weighting of auditory information

Supported by NIH K01 DC016627 (Elin Roverud, Au.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator)
This project investigates the ways in which sensorineural hearing loss impacts how listeners weight and process complex sounds. Listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss are compared in their use of auditory information across frequency in nonspeech sounds. This work has potential implications for how sounds are amplified for individuals with hearing loss.

Association of musical training with auditory neural coding and perception

Supported by NSF and the HRC
Multi-site study investigating the effects of age and musical training on listening abilities and on the neural representation of sound.