Emerging Research Grants

Why Do People With the Same Hearing Hear So Differently in Noise?

Two people have the same audiogram results but one can follow conversations at a loud party, while the other feels completely lost and overwhelmed. We set out to examine why.

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How Our Brainstem Shapes Hearing Aid Success With Noise Reduction

The strength of pitch encoding under noise reduction was linked to how accurately people recognized words in noise. This suggests that measuring NR effects on subcortical speech encoding is doable, and could offer a novel way to predict who will benefit from NR in hearing aids.

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Personalized Cochlear Implant Care Grounded in Music-Based Benchmarks

Our review published in Brain Sciences in May 2025 proposes a shift in how we may evaluate and provide care to CI users: by adjusting our current speech-focused performance metrics to incorporate music perception, and by integrating personalized medicine into CI.

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What Is the Cingulo-Opercular Network?

Effortful listening is mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting. Learn how it affects the brain—and what to do about it.

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Virus-Delivered Therapy Reduces Sound Damage in the Mouse Ear

Our data showed that introducing the mutated nicotinic receptor into otherwise healthy ears can prevent, to some extent, permanent auditory damage caused by loud noise and accelerate hearing recovery.

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Despite Challenges, Les Paul Persevered

Les Paul persisted to refine the design for a solid body electric guitar, create multiple gold records, invent today’s recording techniques, be inducted into multiple halls of fame, and play his guitar until two months before he died at 94 years old in August 2009.

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Antibiotics Damage Hearing Through Different Mechanisms

Understanding the multiple mechanisms behind how aminoglycoside antibiotics are able to kill hair cells may provide new potential therapeutic avenues to make these important drugs safer. 

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Webinar Recap: Birds Show the Way to Hair Cell Regeneration

We can now treat otoferlin-related hearing loss. In the next 10 years, we will continue to reach more groups with specific causes of hearing loss—momentum that will help accelerate the process for everyone.

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New Insights on Hearing Development in Children

This indicates an extended timeline of auditory development in children, which has exciting scientific and clinical implications.

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How Blast Injuries Disrupt Brain Cell Stress Responses

The findings suggest that blast injuries cause excessive activation of PARP1, which disrupts the brain’s natural ability to manage stress and inflammation. This reduces the activity of sirtuins, which help regulate cell repair and stress responses.

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