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The University of Southampton
Engineering

Speech detection: from the biomechanics of the apical cochlea to the auditory brainstem and cortex Seminar

Time:
12:00 - 13:00
Date:
10 January 2017
Venue:
Building 34, Room 4013

For more information regarding this seminar, please email Rameen Mustafa at R.Mustafa@Soton.ac.uk .

Event details

ISVR seminar

One of the most common complaints of people with hearing impairment is a difficulty with understanding speech, in particular in challenging listening situations such as background noise. However, our understanding of how speech sounds are detected in the inner ear, the auditory brainstem and the cortex remains insufficient. Indeed, while the biomechanics of the inner ear at high frequencies has been greatly investigated, the cochlear region that is responsible for detecting the frequencies below 4 kHz that matter most for speech remains poorly understood. Moreover, the role of efferent connections from the auditory cortex to the brainstem and the inner ear for speech processing remains unclear. Here I present recent results that shed new light on these issues. Through laser-interferometric experiments and mathematical modelling my collaborators and I have shown that the apical organ of Cort can function as an elctromechanical transistor. This opens a potential route for efferent nerve fibers to sensitively regulate hearing sensitivity. Such efferent regulation may matter for detecting speech in background noise: my group has developed a mathematical technique to measure the response of the auditory brainstem to running, non-repetitive speech. We have employed this technique to show that the brainstem's response to speech is modulated by selective attention to one of two competing speakers. I conclude by discussing ongoing research regarding the role of cortical oscillations in speech processing and hearing impairment.

Speaker information

Dr Tobias Reichenbach , Imperial College London. Dr. Tobias Reichenbach is a Lecturer at the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He joined Imperial in 2013 after postdoctoral training in computational neuroscience and the biophysics of hearing with Dr. A. J. Hudspeth at the Rockefeller University in New York. He graduated in 2008 with highest honors from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, where he researched on theoretical aspects of non-equilibrium pattern formation and statistical physics in the group of Dr. E. Frey.

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