Past Events Category: Hearing and Donuts

Joseph Roche, M.D.
Waisman Center
March 1, 2024 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Neurofibromatosis type-2 (NF2) is an autosomal dominant genetic condition resulting in multiple benign central nervous system (CNS) tumors, including the hallmark finding of bilateral schwannomas of the vestibulocochlear nerves (AKA vestibular schwannomas). Hearing loss is a near universal symptom for these patients due to tumor induced derangement of auditory nerve fibers, the effect of CNS tumor treatment or both. Due to the nature of the induced hearing losses, aural preservation / rehabilitation has required non-traditional strategies including auditory brainstem implantation. Additionally, the retrocochlear mechanisms of NF-2 hearing losses precluded consideration of cochlear device implantation. Recent data, including work from the University of Wisconsin Cochlear Implant Program, has demonstrated that cochlear implantation is an effective aural rehabilitation option. Now, based on previous success in NF-2 subjects, cochlear implantation is being explored as a hearing restoration option for cerebellopontine angle tumors outside of NF-2. Recent data demonstrating cochlear implantation efficacy in sporadic vestibular schwannoma will be presented.

Erik Jorgensen, Au.D., Ph.D.
Waisman Center
February 23, 2024 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Hearing aid use and listening performance are shaped by auditory ecology—the sounds and soundscapes listeners encounter in daily life and their interaction with them. One of the primary goals of our lab is to better understand the bidirectional effects between auditory ecology and listening performance, and how these affects shape hearing aid use and benefit. This talk will discuss the theoretical framework around auditory ecology and its relationship to hearing and hearing aid use. Then, methods and sampling considerations for characterizing auditory ecology will be discussed, including time, place, and participant. Preliminary results of studies investigating how auditory ecology in younger listeners affects listening performance and how hearing loss and hearing aid use may shape auditory ecology in older listeners are presented. A particular focus will be given to how technologies to collect and analyze real-world data, including mobile technologies and machine learning, can be used to quantify auditory ecology, as well the challenges and limitations that come with these technologies.

Bobby Gibbs, Ph.D.
Waisman Center
January 26, 2024 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

The goal of affording listeners who use bilateral cochlear implants (BICIs) the same spatial hearing benefits as listeners with typical acoustic hearing has remained elusive. This talk highlights assumptions about the best stimulation strategies for optimal BICI performance and when these assumptions fail.

Waisman Center
December 8, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Why Registered Reports? A Study on Speech Perception in Noise Among Musically Trained Children

Waisman Center
December 1, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Anshu, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow Binaural Hearing and Speech Lab Waisman Center University of Wisconsin-Madison Auditory Challenges in Down Syndrome: Insights from Cortical Evoked Potentials Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal condition affecting multiple …

Waisman Center
November 17, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Enhancing, standardizing, and streamlining the adult cochlear implant pre-operative model

Waisman Center
November 3, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Sensorineural deafness has two underlying origins, environmental and genetic. In both cases, a major cause is death of the cochlear hair cells.  To understand the mechanisms of hair cell death, we have studied point mutations in the mechano-electrical (MET) channel protein, TMC1. These mutants surprisingly preserve MET channel function early in mouse neonatal development, but channel function is subsequently lost later in development, in the third to fourth postnatal week. This culminates in death of the hair cells and deafness. I shall describe two of the TMC1 mutants and possible experiments to document loss of MET channel function. I shall also discuss a possible link, involving reduced calcium influx through the MET channel leading to disorganization of hair bundle structure.

Waisman Center
October 27, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

Community-based approaches support scalability, ecological, and cultural validity of early language intervention research. However, there are often unique challenges including funding, recruitment, maintaining design rigor, and dissemination. This session will highlight the strengths and challenges of community-based research, as well as strategies for reducing barriers, through the lens of two ongoing early language intervention clinical trials, KOALA and DUET.

Waisman Center
October 13, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

In two studies, we applied opposing altered auditory feedback to investigate the word as a potential motor planning unit. In Study 1, speakers learned to produce the same syllable (e.g., “ped”) differently based on the word it belongs to (opposite changes to “pedigree” vs. “pedicure”). In Study 2, learned changes to the production of isolated syllables did not transfer to the same syllables when they were part of a multisyllabic word. Together, these studies strongly suggest the word as a speech motor planning unit.

Waisman Center
October 6, 2023 @ 8:30 am - 9:30 am
Learn more about the Hearing and Donuts Seminar Series

This talk will focus on studies aimed at diagnosing hidden hearing loss, understanding the central consequences of hidden hearing loss on neural coding of sounds, and the effects of cochlear synapse loss on speech understanding using a translational approach which combines studies in animal models and human clinical populations. Using non-invasive, auditory evoked potentials as the translational bridge, we study the functional aspects of age-related hearing loss with the goal of designing the next generation of objective neurophysiological biomarkers for assessing changes in hearing in the clinic.