The primary focus of the lab is to investigate central auditory and non-auditory brain plasticity in human participants with tinnitus, or phantom sound perception in the absence of a sound stimulus and in those participants with single-sided or unilateral deafness pre- and post-cochlear device implant.
Specifically, we are using innovative and non-invasive brain imaging called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to better understand and objectify which parts of the brain are potentially involved in phantom sound percept generation. We are investigating subjective tinnitus and a sub-set of tinnitus participants with somatic or somatosensory tinnitus; or the ability to modulate the percept with head, neck and jaw movements.
In single-sided deafness, we are investigating cross modal plasticity or the changes in the human auditory cortex that occur when one side of the auditory circuit is deafened and how auditory neurons realign to respond to non-auditory stimulation and how that might positively or negatively impact cochlear device performance.