Skyler Jennings

RESEARCH:

Understanding how the auditory system adapts to a changing acoustic environment in order to facilitate speech understanding in a noisy background.

My research has a broad impact on our understanding of how the auditory system adapts to noisy backgrounds and how this adaptation influences auditory perception in younger and older adults with normal hearing and older adults with hearing impairment. Recently, this work has been motivated by the physiology of the medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex, which may improve speech perception in noisy backgrounds by adjusting the gain of the cochlear amplifier. This adjustment in gain may improve the contrast between a target signal (e.g., speech) and background noise. Similarly, gross temporal fluctuations in speech (i.e. the speech envelope) consist of a series of peaks and valleys. The physiology of the MOC reflex predicts that the contrast between these peaks and valleys improve when the reflex is stimulated. Current projects in my laboratory are pursuing these predictions through perceptual and computational modeling studies. Modeling studies serve as a bridge between auditory perception and neurophysiology. The knowledge gained from my research program will lead to novel diagnostic procedures and rehabilitative signal processing strategies, designed to enhance the quality of life for hearing-impaired individuals by improving their ability to understand speech in noisy backgrounds.

My Bibliography: