Advancing knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases.
A new study from the Binaural Hearing and Speech (BHS) Lab at the Waisman Center examines functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) – a neuroimaging option that is safe for individuals with metal implants
If you’ve ever seen a graphical representation of a sound, you are probably familiar with what it looks like: hundreds of steep, tightly packed peaks and valleys, all of different heights, moving above and below a common line of symmetry that cuts horizontally through the middle. “When a sound travels through the air, it basically sets the molecules around us in motion, using sound pressure to create sort of a wave,” says Waisman researcher Michaela Warnecke, PhD.
To investigate the feasibility of using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to image cortical activity in cochlear implant (CI) users and normal hearing (NH) adults, using either visual-speech or auditory-speech.
Many people with single-sided deafness have tinnitus in the deaf ear (and normal hearing in the other ear). We are conducting a clinical trial in collaboration with surgeons at Harvard Medical School, to determine if a CI in the deaf ear provides: (A) relief from tinnitus due to the electrical stimulation, and (B) improved ability to localize sounds.
Title: Does Bilateral Experience Lead to Improved Spatial Unmasking of Speech in Children Who Use Bilateral Cochlear Implants? Legend: We vary the spatial locations of target speech and masking speech, so they are co-located (A) or separated (B). The difference in speech reception thresholds between (A) and (B) indicates advantage from spatial cues (spatial release …
Title: Listening effort, also known as cognitive load, is measured with pupil dilation (pupillometry). When speech sounds are degraded, people expend greater amount of ‘cognitive load’ to decipher the meaning of the speech. Legend: A: Subjects listen to sentences while their pupil size is measured using an eye tracker. Stimuli are varied from highly natural …
How do we hear? And how can cochlear implants help those with impaired hearing? Waisman researcher Ruth Litovsky, PhD, answers these questions in the latest episode of Blue Sky Science, a collaboration of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Morgridge Institute for Research. Read the article here.
Ruth Litovsky, PhD, a Waisman Center investigator and professor of communication sciences and disorders, is a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar for the East-Asia Pacific Region. Litovsky is an internationally-recognized expert on auditory perception — how the brain processes sound to enable people to hear and communicate in noisy environments.
More than 278 million people are affected by hearing loss caused by damaged hair cells in the inner ear that process sound to the brain. Waisman Center scientists work to research novel treatments and therapies for individuals with hearing loss that include stem cell research and cochlear implants.
Ruth Litovsky, professor of communication sciences and disorders, has been named a 2014-15 Fulbright Scholar for the East-Asia Pacific Region. Litovsky will collaborate with colleagues in the Bionics Institute in Melbourne, Australia, on the use of novel imaging techniques known as functional near infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS). She plans to learn about ways in which the …
