Auditory Learning and Psychoacoustics Lab

Everyday listening isn’t always easy. Background noise, multiple speakers, or unclear voices can make conversations challenging — especially for children, older adults, and people with hearing loss.
Our lab investigates how people perceive and learn sounds under such conditions. We combine advanced psychoacoustic paradigms (including simulations of cochlear implant hearing) with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to study both behavioral performance and its neural underpinnings. This integrated approach provides new insights into the mechanisms of auditory processing and learning, laying the groundwork for future development of personalized training and rehabilitation strategies.

Our Research Focus
1. Speech perception in challenging conditions
We explore how listeners use acoustic voice cues (like pitch) to separate speakers and understand speech in noise, and how these abilities change with age, hearing status, and cognitive skills.
2. Auditory learning
We identify the factors that influence training success and the ability to generalize and retain learned skills. This includes studying how age, cognitive abilities, training methods, and stimulus complexity affect learning outcomes.
3. Neuroimaging of auditory processing
Using fNIRS, we investigate how auditory, linguistic, and cognitive brain regions interact during speech perception and auditory learning.

Our Mission

Our goal is to advance the scientific understanding of auditory perception and learning. By integrating behavioral measures with advanced brain imaging, our work contributes to theoretical
models of auditory processing and lay the scientific groundwork for developing personalized solutions in auditory training and rehabilitation.

Join Us
We welcome collaborations with researchers, clinicians, and industry partners in the fields of hearing, speech perception, learning, and rehabilitation. We are also looking for motivated graduate students who want to be part of cutting-edge auditory research.