Required Courses
[***Requests for waivers or substitutions for the required coursework will be considered on a case-by-case basis.]
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
1) Basic Neuroscience Courses (pick one to fulfill requirement)
BIOL 60200 Cellular Neurobiology. Credit Hours: 3.00. This course covers principles of neurophysiology and cell, molecular and developmental neurobiology, for graduate students from a wide range of disciplines. Course material will involve lectures and assigned textbook readings, homework problems, and in-class discussions based on selected readings of the primary literature, and computer-based simulations of neurophysiology. Grades will be based on participation in class discussions, graded homework sets and exams (a midterm and final exam). Typically offered Fall.
BIOL 56200 Neural Systems. (Also cross-listed as PSYC 51200). Credit Hours: 3.00. Overview of the structure and function of neural systems including those involved with motor, somatosensory, visual, auditory, learning, memory, and higher cortical processes. Molecular and cellular aspects of neural function are integrated with discussion of relevant neuroanatomy. Background in cell biology, psychobiology, physiology or anatomy is recommended. Typically offered Spring.
BME 59500 Neural Mechanisms of Health and Disease. (Also cross-listed as BIOL 59500). Credit Hours: 3.00. Topics covered: Levels of organization; review of basic neuronal elements and signaling; single neuron plasticity and computation; organization of nervous system; analysis of neuroanatomy data; sensory transduction: physical and chemical senses; feature extraction of sensory information; higher order sensory processing; from sensory coding to perception; motor coding; sensorimotor integration; higher cognition; when brains attack: neural disorders and neurodegeneration. Typically offered Spring.
2) Peripheral Hearing Course - Required
SLHS 504 The Auditory Periphery. Credit hours: 3.00. Acoustics and Fourier analysis; outer-ear resonance and interaural differences; middle-ear impedance and structure; inner-ear mechanical responses; hair-cell transduction, electrophysiology, motility; cochlear potential; cochlear amplifier; suppression; otoacoustic emissions; efferent feedback to the cochlea; damage to the ear; treatments for damaged ears. Offered in Fall.
3) Central/Perceptual Hearing Course (pick one to fulfill requirement)
SLHS 503 Auditory Perception. Credit hours: 3.00. Behavioral measurement of the capabilities of the normal and impaired auditory system. The laboratory experience includes an exposure to the measures and methods of hearing science. Offered in Fall.
SLHS 506 (currently 519) Neural Bases of Hearing. Credit hours: 3.00. Emphasis on structural organization of the auditory nuclei and tracts and the neural bases of various auditory phenomena. Topics include tonotopic organization, inputs/outputs of various auditory structures, neural bases for the encoding of intensity, frequency, and localization of sounds. Objectives: 1) Develop an understanding of the neuroanatomical and functional organization of the central auditory structures and pathways; 2) Develop an understanding of the response properties of neurons in these structures and how they subserve function; 3) Develop an appreciation for the general structure-function relationship; 4) Develop an aptitude for predicting perceptual consequences due to structural lesions. Offered in Fall.
ECE 511/PSYC 511 Psychophysics. Credit Hours: 3.00. An examination of the relationship between physical stimuli and perception (visual, auditory, haptics, etc.). Includes a review of various methods for studying this relationship and of the mathematical and computational tools used in modeling perceptual mechanisms. Permission of department required. Typically offered Fall.
4) Signal Processing Courses (pick one to fulfill requirement)
BME 51100 Biomedical Signal Processing. Credit hours: 3.00. An introduction to the application of digital signal processing to practical problems involving biomedical signals and systems. Topics include: overview of biomedical signals; filtering to remove artifacts; event detection; analysis of waveshape and waveform complexity; frequency domain characterization; modeling biomedical signal-generating systems; analysis of non-stationary signals; pattern classification and diagnostic decisions. MATLAB is used throughout to apply theory and techniques discussed to biomedical signals. Midterm project on cochlear-implant signal processing. Typically offered in Fall.
SLHS 60500 Signal Processing for Hearing and Speech Sciences. Credit Hours: 3.00. This course provides an overview of the fundamental theory of signals and systems analysis with applications to hearing and speech sciences. Topics include: Introduction to MATLAB, time and frequency domain characterizations of signals and of systems, analyses of signals through systems, time/frequency relations, spectrograms, applications to hearing (e.g., hearing-aid and cochlear-implant signal processing), applications to speech, and digital signal processing. Practical experience with digital signal processing (primarily in MATLAB) will supplement lectures. No explicit background in signal processing or MATLAB is assumed.