Projects
Language development after pediatric brainstem implantation. University of Antwerp
Brainstem cues to pitch KU Leuven
“Pitch” is what allows us to order sounds on a musical scale from “low” to “high”. Surprisingly, pitch is not simply a physical characteristic of sound but is a perceptual “label” created by the brain for sounds that show repetition in their waveform. It is one of the most important attributes of hearing and we strongly rely on it for our own communication: to recognize commands versus questions, to distinguish male vs female vs children’s ...
Basic Neural Mechanisms of the Electrically Stimulated Auditory Nerve KU Leuven
over 219000 profoundly hearing-impaired people. CIs attempt to
stimulate the survival Auditory Nerve (AN) fibers directly by means of
electrical pulses. Electrical stimulation is provided via an array of
electrodes implanted inside the cochlea, which directly activates the
AN fibers by means of biphasic Symmetric (SYM) pulses, i.e.an ...
Listening with age: disentangling peripheral and cortical processing in the aging auditory system. KU Leuven
Revisiting the neural bottleneck of information transmission in cochlear implant users KU Leuven
In this project we will research a fully objective fitting process for cochlear implant fitting. This will be done by comparing and improving current EEG measurement methods, simplifying the analyses, improving the signal processing, and minimizing the number of electrodes needed. A clinical protocol for a fully objective fitting will be worked out for CIs, separately for 3 different sessions: Initial Fit, Fine-tuning and Optimizing speech ...
Neural coding of pitch in the lateral lemniscus. KU Leuven
We are interested in how the activity of neurons in the brain leads to perception of sound. This project will unravel the neuronal basis for the perception we call "pitch". That is, the sensation which allows us to order sounds on a musical scale from "low" to "high". Pitch is not a physical acoustic parameter, it is a percept derived in the brain. Pitch allows us to segregate sounds of interest from background sounds. It forms the basis of ...
The lateral superior olive as a time machine toward the spatial localization of transient sounds. KU Leuven
This project addresses a puzzle posed by a neural circuit in the brainstem. Traditionally, this circuit is thought to compute the differences in sound intensity at the two ears to aid localization of sounds in space. A sound to our left is louder at the left than at the right ear and excites neurons on the left side; and vice versa for sounds on our right. The puzzle is that this circuit shows several features that do not fit its ...