Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
TBA
Matthew Banks, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
The sense of self is a multiplicity of interacting processes that is dynamic and flexible, for example including core self (“I am”), embodied self (“I am an agent with a body that feels and senses”), and narrative self (“I have traits and identity that persist through time”). How these processes are integrated during typical waking consciousness, and how this integration is disrupted during sleep, anesthesia, and in psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders is unclear. We are investigating the neural correlates of the self in neurosurgical patients using electrophysiological recordings combined with behavioral tasks. We will use these data to test models of the integration of the self during loss and recovery of consciousness during sleep and anesthesia.
Angie Salles, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Bats are auditory specialists, using acoustic signals to guide their behaviors, including prey tracking, navigation, and communication. Most bat species are very social and emit various communication calls, including food-claiming, aggressive, and appeasement calls. There is strong evidence that context plays a role in the processing of acoustic signals in humans and other animals. Yet, this process’s circuits and mechanisms are still not fully understood. Bats emerge as outstanding mammalian models to explore the neural mechanisms underlying acoustic communication.
Ruth Litovsky, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Binaural hearing is a critically important auditory process which enhances our ability to navigate in noisy, complex listening environments. Bilateral cochlear implants are provided to a growing number of children, and adults, depending on the standard of care and insurance coverage. Bilateral hearing typically improves localization of sounds and segregation of speech from background noise compared with unilateral hearing. However, patients typically perform worse than normal hearing listeners. We use several approaches to understand factors that contribute to reduced performance in individuals with BiCIs.
Gunnar Quass, PhD
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
During behavior, neural activity of thalamo-cortical systems often reflects dynamic combinations of sensory and task-dependent variables, and these “mixed representations” are suggested to be important for perception, learning, and plasticity. However, the extent to which such integrative computations might occur also in lower-order brain regions is less clear. We conducted cellular-resolution 2-photon Ca2+ imaging in the inferior colliculus (IC), as head-fixed mice performed a reward-based psychometric auditory task. We find that the activity of individual shell IC neurons jointly reflects auditory cues, mice’s actions, and behavioral trial outcomes, such that neural population activity indicates mice’s behavioral choice. Consequently, simple classifier models trained on IC neuron activity can predict trial-by-trial outcomes. Thus, in behaving mice, auditory midbrain neurons transmit a population code that reflects a joint representation of sound, actions, and task-dependent variables, adding the IC as an important puzzle piece for perceptual learning circuits and auditory-guided behavior.
Xin Huang, PhD
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Neural coding of multiple visual stimuli - neurophysiology and computational model
Tim K. Murphy, PhD
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Tim K. Murphy, PhD Postdoctoral Research Associate Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders University of Wisconsin-Madison Statistical Learning in Speech Perception Affects Speech Production The idea that neurocognitive processes subserving speech perception and production are …
Robert Fettiplace, PhD
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Human ototacoustic emissions OAEs), both spontaneous and evoked, were first reported in the 1970’s. They are used as evidence for an active mechanical process in the cochlea, and distortion product OAEs are clinically important; however, their mechanism of generation is still not understood. Geckos display prominent spontaneous OAEs at multiple frequencies. We have developed an isolated preparation of the gecko cochlea and have recorded from the auditory hair cells. I shall provide evidence of a mechanical resonance and a new amplification mechanism that probably underlies the OAEs.
G. Nike Gnanateja, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
In this presentation, I will delve into my exploration of the past and present applications of the Frequency Following Response (FFR), a non-invasive electroencephalographic tool, in assessing speech processing and plasticity in humans. FFRs offer invaluable insights into the brain's processing of speech and music, capturing essential elements such as periodicity and harmonic components. I will provide a concise overview of FFRs, and the metrics utilized in their analysis. Additionally, I will discuss the neural origins of FFRs, shedding light on their contribution to plasticity theories. Additionally, presenting our recent research on the neural sources of FFRs, I will explore its implications for evolving plasticity theories. I will briefly touch upon methodological advancements in ecologically valid FFR stimulus presentations. Finally, I will outline our upcoming longitudinal study aiming to leverage FFRs to longitudinally assess plasticity in sub-cortical and cortical processing.
Dhatri Devaraju, Ph.D.
Waisman Center @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series
Effective speech perception requires sustained attention and constant updating and manipulation of speech information stored in the working memory. Electroencephalography (EEG) can be an effective non-invasive tool that can be used to assess how these processes interplay at different timescales in the brain, which can be a window into understanding disordered attentional control in individuals with communication disorders. The talk will focus on two studies assessing neural mechanisms underlying attentional control in individuals who stutter. The first study specifically evaluates inhibitory control in children who stutter using a child-friendly visual go/no-go task. Although there were no significant differences in children who stutter compared to their peers in terms of spatio-temporal analyses of their event-related potentials, different patterns of frontal beta rhythms were evident between the groups. The second study aimed at evaluating the effects of sustained attention and working memory on phonological processing using an auditory n-back task in adults who stutter. Adults who stutter showed altered neural representations in terms of spatio-temporal distributions compared to their peers. Further, I will be talking about the current advances that we are making in leveraging machine learning algorithms to classify syllables based on EEG responses in an n-back task under increased attention and working memory demands.
