Facilities and Resources

SNAPlab psychophysics and human physiology facility

The laboratory is fully equipped to collect the range of behavioral and physiological measures used by members of SNAPlab to study auditory perception. A notable capability of SNAPlab is the ability to non-invasively measure physiological responses at different levels of the auditory pathway from the middle-ear and the cochlea, through the brainstem, up to the auditory cortex and beyond:

A room (~400 sq ft), with a 9 ft. x 9 ft. IAC sound-attenuating booth
96-channel BioSemi ActiveTwo Electroencephalography (EEG) system: great common-mode rejection, robustness against electrode contact impedance variability, high sampling rates, battery operation.
Two Tucker-Davis Technologies (TDT) psychoacoustics workstation systems (RZ6)
Etymotic ER-10X, and ER-10C otoacoustic emission (OAE) measurement systems
16 TB network-attached storage (NAS) and backup (RAID 5)
In-ear active electrodes
Workstation-class PCs for stimulus delivery, data acquisition, and analysis
Polhemus digitizer/motion tracker
Etymotic ER1, ER2, and ER-3A insert earphones, Sennheiser HD 380pro, and HDA300 headphones
Tektronics oscilloscope
Ear and Cheek simulators, 1/4" reference pressure microphones (Brüel & Kjær 4136), and probe-tube microphones (Etymotic ER-7C) for detailed acoustic measurements and calibrations
Standalone MATLAB licenses for air-gapped operation of stimulus delivery (Also see in-house open-source software resources below)

Purdue MRI facility

M.D. Steer Audiology Clinic

A large audiology clinic that is fully equipped to test people of all ages.

Intellectual environment at Purdue

The intellectual environment at Purdue is open and supportive. Members of the large community of hearing researchers and clinicians from 13 research labs and the MD Steer Audiology Clinic engage in stimulating discussions during a weekly Hearing Research Seminar (coordinated by Prof. Michael Heinz). This promotes collaboration within Purdue, and provides the opportunity to invite leading experts in the field from across the country and internationally. In addition, the new and growing Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience brings together around 100 faculty members from 25 departments and 6 colleges with broad interests in neuroscience. Thus, Purdue provides an environment that is highly enriching to train as a student or post-doc and to get access to experts using a wide range of techniques to study the brain. The numerous engineering departments, including the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, and the interdisciplinary Purdue Discovery Park provide a nurturing environment to translate research findings to devices and solutions, and maximize practical impact.

Software Resources

For the range of software resources developed, maintained, and used by members of SNAPlab, visit the software page.