Neural Basis of Hearing Department of Hearing and Speech
Sciences 065 Wilson Hall We are interested in the question of
how we hear and process sounds in noisy, natural environments.
These situations are important because they reflect precisely
the kinds of circumstances that older people and people with
hearing impairment have great difficulty in navigating. And
moreover, the ability to hear in noisy environments, which is
effortless for people with normal hearing, can not be restored
to people with hearing difficulties through hearing aids or
cochlear implants. Our initial (current) studies deal with the
normative baseline. What is the neuronal basis for being able to
hear in noisy environments for normal hearing? We investigate
this with a combination of behavior, neurophysiology and
computational modeling. We use behavioral methods to measure
hearing metrics in quiet environments, and how these metrics are
modified in noisy environments. Electrophysiological tools allow
us to directly correlate the report