2. Our faculty investigates health, development, aging, and
disability related to speech, language, deglutition, and
hearing, and aims to develop new ways to assess, prevent,
and treat communication disabilities.
SHS Research Labs
4. How does tinnitus occur? / How does it affect the individual?
Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience Lab
Dr. Fatima T. Husain
• The lab uses several different techniques:
• Online surveys to understand
demographic factors related to the
condition
• In-lab behavior testing to understand
hearing-related factors of tinnitus
• Brain imaging techniques to understand
changes in the brain with tinnitus
• One of the goals of the lab is to develop a test of tinnitus
using brain imaging.
• One of a handful of labs world-wide that use magnetic
resonance imaging or MRI to study what is happening
in the brain due to tinnitus.
• Testing various techniques
that facilitate adapting to the
sound and improving the
patient's quality of life.
• Collaborates with different
departments on campus from
engineering to psychology, and nationally and
internationally to accelerate research into this disorder.
5. Current AuD Student Capstone
Project Topics
Areas of Research
Auditory Electrophysiology Laboratory
Dr. Ron Chambers
• Sensory gating based on measurement of
the auditory cortical P50 response
• Investigations of the Level-Specific Chirp
(designed by Claus Elberling) for
enhanced measurement of the parameters
of the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR)
• Effects of Level-Specific Chirp Stimuli on the
Amplitude and Latency of Wave V of the Auditory
Brainstem Response (ABR): Level-Specific Chirp
Type and Stimulus Level
• Use of the Level-Specific Chirp to Elicit the Binaural
Interaction Component (BIC) of the Auditory
Brainstem Response (ABR)
• The Effects of Scalp-Electrode Montage on the
Amplitude and Latency of Wave V of the Auditory
Brainstem Response (ABR): Vertical versus
Horizontal Montage
6. Current Research
Binaural Hearing Lab
Dr. Justin Aronoff
• Understand how information from the two ears is
combined
• How we can improve cochlear implant users’
access to cues for localizing sound and
understanding speech in noisy environments
• Improve cochlear implant users’ ability to control
their voice
7. Areas of Research
Hearing Research Lab
Dr. Ian Mertes
• Peripheral and central auditory mechanisms involved in
speech-in-noise perception
• Adults with normal hearing and with sensorineural hearing
loss
• Methods include otoacoustic emissions, auditory
electrophysiology, and speech perception
9. Current ProjectsAreas of Research
Aging and Neurocognition Lab
Dr. Raksha Mudar
• Understand the effects of
neurodegenerative disorders on higher-
order cognitive functions
• Examine the effects of strategy-based
cognitive training in individuals with
neurodegenerative disorders
• Impact of Hearing Loss on Brain and Cognition in
Older Adults
• Neural Markers of Strategic Attention
• Benefits of Social Engagement Using Video
Technology for Economically Disadvantaged Older
Adults
• Enhancing Neurocognitive Health, Abilities,
Networks, and Community Engagement
(ENHANCE)
10. Current ProjectsAreas of Research
Applied Psycholinguistics Lab
Dr. Pamela Hadley & Dr. Matthew Rispoli
• To identify patterns of language growth that
identify children at-risk for developmental
language disorders
• To study how specific properties of adult
language help children learn words and
grammatical patterns more easily to incorporate
into more effective, evidence-based early
language interventions
• Maximizing outcomes for preschoolers with
developmental language disorder: Testing the effects
of a sequentially targeted naturalistic intervention
• When to worry about
language study (W2W-L):
Joint consideration of
developmental patterning
and neural substrates for
enhancing early
identification of language
impairment.
11. Current ProjectsCurrent Areas of Research
The Child Language Lab
Dr. Cynthia J. Johnson
• Syntactic, narrative, and phonological
development in children, both with and without
speech or language disorders.
• The examination of the relationship between
language competency and early writing skills
• Intervention to support emergent writing in early
elementary-school children with developmental
language disorders
• Confusions in perceiving consonants and vowels,
in mid- to late-elementary school children with
reading disabilities
• Cross-linguistic comparison of vocal development
in English- and Korean-acquiring infants and
toddlers.
• Social-cognitive and speech production profiles of
3- to 6-year-old children with autism who are
minimally verbal; and intervention to foster growth
in the number of spoken words
12. Current ProjectsAreas of Research
Development in Neurogenetic Disorders Lab
Dr. Laura Hahn
• To gain better understanding of early
development, especially early communication
and social development, in infants and young
children with neurogenetic disorders in order to
promote positive development and well-being in
these children and their families.
• We are committed to translating our research to
support the development and implementation of
evidence-based early interventions
• Impact of child and maternal gestures on
word learning in Down syndrome.
• Impact of child and maternal gestures on
word learning in fragile X syndrome
13. Current ProjectsAreas of Research
Intellectual Disabilities Communication Lab
Dr. Marie Channell
• Characterizing how individuals with intellectual
disabilities such as Down syndrome learn to
communicate; Identifying optimal supports
• Hear more : A Few Minutes with Dr. Marie Channell
• Mental state language and narrative
development in school-age children with
Down syndrome
• Children’s emotion understanding
• Mother-child interactions
• Comorbid autism spectrum disorder
• Transition to community-based, independent
living for young adults with Down syndrome
15. The Contribution of Extended High
Frequencies to Speech/Voice Perception
Auditory Neurodevelopment of
Preterm Infant
Auditory Neuro Experience Lab
Dr. Brian Monson
• Goal of this research:
• Develop interventions that will optimize
auditory experience for preterm infants to
• Promote healthy auditory brain
development, speech perception, and
language acquisition during infancy and
childhood.
• Extended high-frequency energy (energy
produced at frequencies >8 kHz) provides
the auditory brain with useful information
for speech and singing voice perception
• Cues for speech source location,
speech/voice quality, vocal timbre,
and even speech intelligibility.
• These cues are likely utilized more readily
by children, who typically have much more
sensitive high-frequency hearing than
adults.
16. Current StudiesAreas of Research
Child Speech Research Lab
Dr. Mary Flaherty
• Development of children’s speech perception in
complex acoustic environments
• Age effects
• Effects of hearing loss and amplification
• Can speech perception improve for children in
noise with hearing loss at different points
of development?
• Impact of talker in noisy environments – Is it easier to
understand your mom?
• Children’s ability to use voice pitch differences to
understand words and sentences
17. Speech Accommodation to Acoustics (SPAA) Lab
Pasquale Bottalico
Hear more : A Few Minutes
with Dr. Pasquale Bottalico
Current Studies
Areas of Research
• Effect of room acoustics on speech production
• How talkers modify their speech production in
relationship with their auditory feedback.
• Goal: determine the best acoustics condition to
decrease vocal effort and fatigue in the talkers.
• Effect of room acoustics on speech perception
• The effect of noise and reverberation on speech
intelligibility.
• Goal: determine the best acoustics conditions to
enhance intelligibility.
Lombard Effect in
restaurant among
senior population
with and without
hearing loss.
Speech intelligibility
in classrooms
Vocal fatigue in
virtual acoustics
Voice and noise
dosimetry
in music teachers
18. Current Projects
Areas of Research
Voice and Speech Rehabilitation Research Lab
Dr. Keiko Ishikawa
Missions :
To generate evidence that informs clinical
practice for improving the communicative
ability of individuals with voice and speech
disorders
To train future clinicians and scientists through
research and clinical engagements
To promote vocal health of the community by
improving access to clinical care and providing
education
Hear more: A Few Minutes with Dr. Keiko Ishikawa
The goals of our current projects include:
To understand the effect of voice disorders on
speech acoustics and intelligibility in various
acoustic environments
To establish an evidence-based vocal injury
prevention program by describing the effect of
speech production styles on speech acoustics
and intelligibility, and laryngeal physiology
To develop an automatic speech analysis
system for improving speech intelligibility of
individuals with voice disorders
19. Areas of Research
Speech Perception Lab
Dr. Karen Kirk
• Factors influencing spoken word recognition
and speech perception in adult and pediatric
cochlear implant users.
• Clinical research focusing on cochlear implant
outcomes in children.
• Developed speech perception assessment
materials that have been used in FDA clinical
trials of cochlear implant systems.
