Past Events Category: Prosem

Mohammad Maarefvand, Ph.D.
62 Goodnight Hall
February 16, 2026 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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In standard clinical audiological practice, individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss receive cochlear implants in one or both ears. Recent advances in the field recognize that some patients have residual low-frequency acoustic hearing, making them eligible for Electric-Acoustic Stimulation (EAS). EAS combines high-frequency electric hearing (through a cochlear implant) with low-frequency acoustic hearing (through a hearing aid) in the same ear. Studies in adults have reported benefits from EAS, including improved speech understanding in noise and sound localization. Little is known about benefits from EAS for children. Moreover, benchmark data on low-frequency sensitivity in children are minimal. This study is part of a multi-center investigation addressing a gap in knowledge on the role of low-frequency hearing in binaural sensitivity and speech recognition in noise when low-frequency binaural cues are available. We investigated age-related sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs), as well as the benefit for speech understanding in children and adults with typical hearing. These data will provide developmental typical benchmarks for our team’s ongoing studies aimed at assessing clinical outcomes in children and adults who receive EAS devices. Results showed age-related improvements in both ITD/ILD thresholds and speech perception in noise across childhood. However, despite these parallel trends, the measures may reflect distinct underlying mechanisms. This work was supported by grants from the NIH-NIDCD (R01DC020194 to R.H.G. and R01DC020355 to R.Y.L) and in part by a core grant to the Waisman Center (NICHD P50HD105353).

Carolyn Kroger, Ph.D.
62 Goodnight Hall
February 2, 2026 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Perception and action are fundamentally shaped by time. Precise timing allows us to integrate sensory information, understand speech, and coordinate movement. With healthy aging and in many neurological disorders, these timing processes become less reliable, contributing to difficulties in communication, motor control, and overall quality of life. My research investigates how aging and neurological conditions alter time perception and motor coordination, and how these changes affect auditory processing and movement. Using interdisciplinary approaches such as psychophysics, motion tracking, behavioral modeling, and electroencephalography, I study the neural and behavioral mechanisms that support auditory and motor timing. My goal is to understand how these mechanisms are impacted by healthy aging, hearing loss, and motor disorders. In this talk, I will present two main lines of research, highlighting key findings from past and ongoing work. First, I will examine the role of temporal processing in auditory feature integration across the lifespan. Second, I will discuss how aging and neurological disorders affect rhythm perception and movement timing. I will conclude by outlining how my future work will advance our understanding of human timing in healthy older adults and inform rhythm-based interventions to improve speech and movement fluency in motor and communication disorders.

Emily Goldberg M.S., CCC-SLP
62 Goodnight Hall
January 29, 2026 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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Aphasia is a chronic language disorder that disproportionately affects older adults following stroke, with profound consequences for communication, independence, and quality of life. Although behavioral language therapy is the clinical standard for managing aphasia, treatment outcomes vary widely, and mechanisms supporting successful language re-learning remain poorly understood. Because rehabilitation depends on learning and memory processes, identifying biological factors that support or constrain learning is critical for improving aphasia outcomes. I present a program of research that reframes aphasia rehabilitation as a sleep-dependent learning process at the intersection of communication science, cognitive neuroscience, and healthy aging. Sleep disturbance is common after stroke and changes systematically with age, yet sleep has been overlooked as a contributor to aphasia recovery. Drawing on behavioral, neuroimaging, and sleep data from individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia, I introduce a neurobiological model proposing complementary hippocampal and neocortical routes to language re-learning. I then describe ongoing work testing this model by examining associations between sleep quality and treatment-driven changes in language function and neural organization. Finally, I outline future directions that integrate sleep physiology into aphasia rehabilitation and extend these principles to healthy aging, positioning sleep as a modifiable mechanism for promoting learning and plasticity across the lifespan.

Lauren Dillard, Ph.D., Au.D., M.S.
62 Goodnight Hall
January 26, 2026 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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This presentation is guided by a public health framework of the principles that should be met to recommend screening for any disease or condition, including age-related hearing loss (ARHL). Dr. Dillard will provide an overview of her research contributing to the evidence base to support several principles related to screening for ARHL, including (1) the natural history should be understood, (2) treatment should be accepted and better at an earlier stage and (3) there should be an agreed upon policy on whom to treat. Key results towards each of the principles are as follows. First, declines to hearing occur across the entire adult lifespan and vary by key demographic and health-related risk factors; improved understanding on the natural history of ARHL can inform understanding on when to begin screening and treatment. Second, rates of hearing aid uptake among the general population are low; preliminary suggest that earlier intervention could improve long-term hearing aid outcomes. Third, tools of self-reported hearing difficulty may be beneficial in determining whom to treat. In addition, Dr. Dillard will present data on the outcomes of a large-scale program to screen for ARHL and future research directions aiming to maximize the impact of screening for ARHL.

Liz Ancel, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
150 Russell Laboratories
December 1, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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In speech-language pathology, clinicians often conduct assessment and intervention tasks with children via live voice. When administering these tasks, SLPs may differ in their manner of delivery, even when the content of the task is the same. Based on previous research in child-directed speech (speech directed to children), variability between SLPs' manner of delivery potentially impacts children's language outcomes. However, many findings from existing research in child-directed speech have limited generalizability to clinical settings in speech-language pathology due to their focus on caregiver speech and broad, long-term language outcomes. To better understand the function and role of speech characteristics in clinical settings with children, this presentation will first describe the speech of 31 SLPs administering a common clinical task (sentence repetition) to an imagined adult listener and four imagined child listeners who differ in age and language ability. Then, we will analyze how three different SLPs' usage of adult-directed and child-directed speech impacted children's ability to repeat sentences accurately. The results demonstrate how SLPs' manner of delivery can impact children's language outcomes, which furthers the need for research connecting speech characteristics and child outcomes that encompasses a variety of clinical tasks and child populations.

Jared Cullen, B.S.
150 Russell Laboratories
November 24, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Alexander disease (AxD) is a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder caused by dominant gain of function mutations in the glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) gene, leading to protein aggregation, astrocyte dysfunction, white matter degeneration, and progressive neurological decline. Individuals with AxD frequently experience bulbar impairments, including dysphagia, feeding difficulties, compromised airway protection, and dysarthria, however these deficits have not yet been characterized in preclinical animal models. Our research assessed oromotor function in the CRISPR/Cas9-engineered GFAP+/R237H rat model, which carries the rodent equivalent of the severe and clinically prevalent human R239H mutation. To determine whether this model recapitulates clinically observed bulbar motor deficits, we conducted a series of baseline behavioral assays including tongue strength, mastication efficiency, swallowing function, and ultrasonic vocalizations to measure function directly related to swallowing and speech. Findings from this work establish the first evidence of oromotor dysfunction in an AxD animal model, paralleling bulbar motor impairments observed clinically in individuals with AxD. These results strengthen the translational relevance of the GFAP+/R237H rat model and its validity as a robust tool for future mechanistic studies and the development of therapeutic and/or rehabilitative techniques aimed at improving the bulbar function in Alexander disease.

Erik Jorgensen, Au.D., Ph.D.
150 Russell Laboratories
November 17, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Hearing loss is associated with increased risks of loneliness and depression. The mechanisms underlying this association are unknown. In this talk, we outline a possible hearing-related behavior framework for understanding how hearing loss may lead to negative social-emotional health outcomes. The framework posits that acoustic environments and perceptual abilities, including the effects of hearing loss and audiologic intervention, interact in complex ways to influence long-term well-being. We then provide preliminary empirical evidence testing this theory. Our results provide support for our hypothesized pathway from hearing loss to depression; however, the results also suggest that hearing aid use may change daily life behaviors in fundamental ways that call into question traditional philosophies of hearing aid benefit and outcome.

Junseo Cha, M.S.
150 Russell Laboratories
November 3, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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With innovations in gene-targeting therapy, cellular atlases have been widely used in other parts of the body to identify the pathogenesis of diseased organs and to search for potential target genes to cure such diseases. Accordingly, a cell atlas of vocal fold tissues has been constructed during different stages of the vocal fold wound healing process in FVB/NJ mice. After clustering, we identified a total of 23 major cell types, including epithelial, mesenchymal, endothelial, neural, and immune populations. Epithelial clusters were subdivided into secretory, basal, and suprabasal clusters, and immune cells were subdivided to identify myeloid and lymphoid cell populations. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were used to delineate enriched pathways for each of the subclusters to identify their roles in wound healing. Results show an acute inflammatory response mostly in immune cell populations and certain mesenchymal populations during the early stages of wound healing, followed by a high proliferation profile from epithelial populations as the recovery stage progresses. Our data show distinct trajectories of macrophage differentiation throughout the wound healing period, with complex cell-cell communication between epithelial, myeloid, lymphoid, and mesenchymal cell populations. These findings serve as foundational background for future research on vocal fold biology and successful wound healing.

Latifatu Mohammed, M.S.
150 Russell Laboratories
October 27, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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During naturally occurring social interactions, such as conversations, question-response competence, a component of pragmatics, is employed to facilitate interactions, maintain topics, and foster social connectedness. In early childhood, parents use questions to promote children’s language learning. Children become responsive to questions at a very young age, and this ability tends to increase with age. Autistic children and children with fragile X syndrome often have pragmatic language difficulties, including question-response difficulties. In the current study, we aimed to (1) evaluate the response ability of autistic boys and boys with FXS and co-occurring autism to questions during conversations with an examiner, and (2) examine the relationship between the adequacy of their response and their expressive language abilities. Results showed that boys in both groups had high rates of responding to questions. However, autistic boys performed significantly better compared to boys with FXS+ autism in how they responded to the questions and also engaged in questions that both initiated and continued topics. In children with FXS and co-occurring autism, we found relationships between their expressive language and how they responded to questions. These findings add to our knowledge of question-response competence and expressive language among autistic boys and boys with FXS+ autism.

Rebecca Alper, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
150 Russell Laboratories
October 20, 2025 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
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Early language skills are critical to lifelong academic and health outcomes. Experiencing early economic adversity is a group-level risk factor for children's language skill development. However, on the individual, clinical level early interaction quality and language outcomes vary greatly. This talk will focus on examining systems- and individual-level factors associated with early language skills. Furthermore, we will discuss strengths-based approaches for supporting caregiver–child interaction, early language skills, and subsequent outcomes for families experiencing adversity.