Neural Engineering Speech and Hearing Laboratory

The following projects are currently available as thesis projects for MS students and as research experience for undegraduate students 

Data classification of functional near infrared spectroscopy data

Non-parametric statistical approaches are useful for automatic classification of signals. In this project, different non-parametric approaches will be used to extract information from recordings of brain activity.

Psychophysics of informational masking

Imagine a situation where a woman is talking to you while a man is also speaking in the background. The task of understanding the female target voice is probably challenging due to the interference from the background, but it would be even more challenging when the background consisted of another female talker. This phenomenon is an example of so-called informational masking. In this project, psychophysical experiments in concert with computational modelling will be used to explore how the brain solves this task.

Psychophysics of music perception

Cochlear implants intend to restore hearing in profoundly deaf individuals. The devices typically function well in quiet but not in situations with background sound. In this project, psychophysical experiments in concert with computational modelling will be used to explore how we could restore auditory perception more fully in individuals with cochlear implants.

Computational modeling of masking release under sound deprivation

Neural networks can successfully predict aspects of brain function. In this project, a system of coupled differential equations will be used to model how the brain processed background sound under sound deprivation.