Seminars in Hearing Research

Date: October 8, 2026

Location:NLSN 1195

Time: 12:00-1:00pm

Speaker: Abigail Mollison, PhD Student, SLHS

Title: Investigating the Brain-Body Connection:  Realistic Speech Perception Outcomes in CI Users.

Abstract: Cochlear implant (CI) users vary dramatically in speech perception performance post-implant, yet current clinical assessments fail to explain or predict this variance in real-world environments. Potential factors contributing to CI user outcomes have previously been measured without considering interactions between multiple systems such as the brain-body connection. Additionally, CI users are not assessed for speech perception in a clinic beyond word recognition or sentence repetition tasks. These clinical assessment tasks overlook the role that listening effort, where neural resources are reallocated to support increased auditory processing demands, plays in individual CI user speech perception. Consequently, clinical assessments fail to capture the wide range of CI user performance. This individual variability may be revealed in brain-body correlates of the listening effort processes required to support speech comprehension. The objective of this research is to map the neurophysiological signatures of naturalistic speech perception and listening effort in CI users. The central hypothesis is that low-performing CI users will exhibit brain-body signatures characterized by inefficient neural resource allocation, heightened autonomic arousal responses, and a reduction in listening effort-influenced attentional processes during adverse listening conditions. In this talk, I will present my current F31 specific aims to analyze individual brain-body signatures of listening effort in both normal-hearing and CI users.

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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://engineering.purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts