Seminars in Hearing Research at Purdue (SHRP)

Thursday, January 13, 2021 
10:30-11:20 AM in LYLE 1150 & Zoom

Title: Precision Diagnostics for Personalized Hearing Intervention and Perceptual Training

Speaker: Subong Kim, Postdoctoral Associate, SLHS

Abstract: In audiology clinics, currently, hearing loss is mainly characterized using threshold audiometry, and hearing intervention is provided to maximize audibility while maintaining comfortable loudness. Yet, even with prescriptive amplification, speech understanding abilities in noisy environments vary substantially across individuals with similar audiograms. Because speech-in-noise perception is considerably more complex than detecting quiet sound, the nature of deficits in suprathreshold hearing likely differ from person to person; however, the physiological bases of such individual variability remain unknown. My research aims to advance our understanding of the precise auditory and cognitive mechanisms leading to impaired hearing, with the intent of improving personalized hearing intervention or providing perceptual training, based on each listener's physiology. In this presentation, first, I will introduce the notion of cortical "neural signal-to-noise ratio" that can predict individual speech-in-noise outcomes from noise-reduction (NR) processing. Then, I will discuss my approach to building profiles of peripheral pathophysiology and top-down selective attention efficacy to obtain a detailed characterization of individual hearing loss across listeners with a similar hearing sensitivity using a range of physiological and psychoacoustical measures. I will also describe novel subcortical measures for quantifying individual tolerance to noise and sensitivity to speech-cue distortions induced by NR processing. Next, I will demonstrate the effect of NR on cortical speech processing across brain regions beyond the auditory cortex. Further, I will discuss how the neurofeedback training of auditory selective attention can enhance the neural encoding of target speech and improve speech-in-noise performance. Lastly, I will describe future research plans, including how I plan to leverage the individual hearing and cognitive profiles to predict behavioral, subcortical, and cortical metrics of speech-in-noise perception outcomes and NR benefits, and guide individualized intervention.

Zoom Info: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/93108158900?pwd=RDdTQ0Z4UE9Rb0JUenhjMG1SMkp2QT09

Meeting ID: 931 0815 8900

Passcode: 11501150

The working schedule is available here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

The titles and abstracts of the talks will be added here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts