Dr. Janata's research into music and memory featured in Wall Street Journal Online
Hearing Loss
Hearing loss affects more than half a billion people world-wide.
The Miller Laboratory is dedicated to understanding the neural bases of auditory perception and speech recognition, especially in noisy environments. Much of our research is motivated by people with hearing loss, who have exceptional difficulty understanding speech in noise. Hearing loss has broad societal consequences, affecting 30 million Americans and half a billion worldwide. Depression, loneliness, and social anxiety are common conditions afflicting those (particularly older adults) who suffer this reduced ability to communicate. Untreated hearing loss in the U.S. costs tens of billions of dollars annually. The human costs are immeasurable.
Our methods include non-invasive techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), high-density electroencephalography (EEG), and neural network analysis. We use these to learn how different parts of the brain cooperate to achieve perception, how hearing aids and similar devices affect this process, and what happens when comprehension fails. Results from our research may lead to practical solutions such as: improved audiological diagnosis and targeting, improved hearing-device design (wearable aids and implants), better speech recovery after device fitting, improved training on listening strategies, and enhanced social integration among special populations. Our research is made possible by the generous support of the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Exploring the Mind Speaker Series - Dr. Paul Ekman, UC San Francisco