Sensory neocortex is capable of considerable plasticity after sensory deprivation or damage to input pathways, especially early in development. Although plasticity can often be restorative, sometimes novel, ectopic inputs invade the affected cortical area. Invading inputs from other sensory modalities may compromise the original function or even take over, imposing a new function and preventing...

The forebrain plays an important role in many aspects of sound localization behavior. Yet, the forebrain pathway that processes auditory spatial information is not known for any species. Using standard anatomic labeling techniques, we used a "top-down" approach to trace the flow of auditory spatial information from an output area of the forebrain sound localization pathway (the auditory archist...

Presenting information to multiple sensory modalities sometimes facilitates and sometimes interferes with processing of this information. Research examining interference effects shows that auditory input often interferes with processing of visual input in young children (i.e., auditory dominance effect), whereas visual input often interferes with auditory processing in adults (i.e., visual domi...

Cochlear implants (CIs) are auditory prostheses which restore hearing via electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. The successful adaptation of auditory cognition to the CI input depends to a substantial degree on individual factors. We pursued an electrophysiological approach toward an analysis of cortical responses that reflect perceptual processing stages and higher-level responses to C...

This study examined the effect of attention engagement to compound auditory-visual stimuli on the modification of the startle blink reflex in infants. Infants at 8, 14, 20, or 26 weeks of age were presented with interesting audiovisual stimuli. After stimulus onset, at delays defined by heart rate changes known to be associated with sustained attention or attention disengagement, blink reflexes...

Patients with steeply sloping hearing losses of cochlear origin may exhibit enhanced difference limens for frequency (DLFs) near the cut-off frequency (Fc) of their hearing loss. This effect has been related to observations in deafened animals of an over-representation of Fc in the primary auditory cortex. However, alternative interpretations in terms of peripheral mechanisms have not been elim...

Title of dissertation: Single-Microphone Speech Enhancement Inspired by Auditory System Majid Mirbagheri, Doctor of Philosophy, 2014 Dissertation directed by: Professor Shihab Shamma, Department of Electrical and Computer Enhancing quality of speech in noisy environments has been an active area of research due to the abundance of applications dealing with human voice and dependence of their per...

A growing body of research investigates how humans learn complex hierarchical structures with center-embedded recursion (Bahlmann, Schubotz, & Friderici, 2008; Poletiek & Lai, 2012). Increasing evidence indicates that properties of the learning input have an impact on learning this type of recursion. For instance, recent studies found that staged input, fewer unique exemplars and unequal repeti...

the accuracy of the editing procedure for the detection of GABA resonance. Moreover, further studies are needed to investigate GABA reductions in larger multiple sclerosis cohorts and to assess longitudinally the sensitivity to change of this potentially unique biomarker of neurodegeneration.aminobutyric acid levels in the parietal region of patients with Alzheimer's disease. gamma-aminobutyric...