Binaural Hearing and Listening Effort

Binaural hearing is the use of two ears to hear.  Binaural hearing is known to improve the ability to locate a sound source and to improve speech understanding in noise.  We are interested in understanding binaural-hearing benefits for listening effort in listeners with cochlear implants, and how asymmetry in the functionality across ears impacts these benefits. 

Objective Measures of Listening Difficulty

We are developing enhanced objective measures of hearing difficulty in individuals whose reported hearing difficulties exceed what is expected based on their hearing thresholds.  We are also investigating ways to translate these measures to the clinic.  This work is funded by a grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) Hearing Restoration Research Program (HRRP), in a collaboration between Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the University at Buffalo (PI at WRNMMC: Douglas Brungart, Subaward PI at UB: Kristina Milvae).