Upcoming Research Webinar

Does What We Hear Matter for Balance?
Anat Lubetzky, Ph.D.
Monday, January 13, 2025 | 5pm ET

People with hearing loss are at an increased risk for falls, yet sounds are not typically included in clinical assessments for balance, and people with hearing loss are not typically screened for balance impairments and fall risk. In this webinar, Anat Lubetzky, PT, Ph.D., will describe her interdisciplinary journey into the world of sounds and balance together with music technologists, computer scientists, and clinicians.

A 2019 Emerging Research Grants scientist, Lubetzky is an associate professor of physical therapy at New York University Steinhardt. She will present her work creating virtual reality simulations to investigate the role of sounds in balance control. Her research points to the importance of sounds in balance control under specific environmental conditions (context matters!) and particularly in those with balance problems due to vestibular loss. She will also discuss a potential paradigm shift in the assessment and rehabilitation of balance to include sound.

HHF research webinars highlight the significant findings by Emerging Research Grants scientists. Our ERG program provides seed funding to early stage investigators, including in underfunded areas of otology, and these presentations underscore the critical impact this funding has had on both research advances as well as the scientists themselves.

The series is moderated by Anil K. Lalwani, M.D., a member of HHF's Board of Directors and the head of HHF's Council of Scientific Trustees, which oversees the ERG program. He is a professor and the vice chair for research in the department of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, the associate dean for student research at Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and a codirector at the Columbia Cochlear Implant Program.