Hearing is the primary sense underlying that most human of all abilities, verbal communication. How we can understand speech at all in many modern, noisy environments remains a considerable mystery. The fact that we do, and that we do it much better than any machine or algorithm, places research into the neuroscience and psychology of hearing right at the forefront of 21st century science.
About 8-10 million people in the UK have a hearing loss. But only about 20% of them receive a hearing aid or cochlear implant. A further unknown number of millions of people who have listening difficulties without a hearing loss receive only limited, if any targeted support. For the overwhelming majority of people with hearing difficulties, therefore, using the brain to listen, or to ‘fill in’ for an impaired ear may be the only resource they have. If we could improve the efficacy of hearing prostheses by improving the brain’s ability to use them, we could greatly improve their uptake. And if we could improve the brain’s ability to listen we could help many others to communicate more effectively.
The work of the MRC Institute of Hearing Research (IHR) is devoted to this topic: the brain mechanisms of hearing and the associated cognitive and multisensory processes. IHR is one of only a handful of centres around the world that delivers interdisciplinary research on hearing, and is the MRC's largest investment in hearing science. IHR employs senior staff expert in neuroscience, psychology, acoustics, and medicine. It also has a thriving PhD programme. IHR's research covers the full dimension of auditory science, from fundamental neuroanatomy to the quality of life experienced by a patient.
Recent scientific highlights include
- the influence of descending connections from the auditory cortex on the function of neurons in the subcortical auditory system.
- mode locking by neurons of the ventral cochlear nucleus.
- the nature of neural adaptation and its application to pitch processing.
- robust scientific evidence on the nature of auditory processing disorder in children and the development of national clinical guidelines.
- a demonstration that listeners naturally orient to the side of a sound, not towards it.
- a means to alleviate the disturbing effects of reverberation for cochlear implant users
Translation of our science into the clinical and industrial applications is a crucial aspect to our work. We run ‘in house’ studies of individuals with hearing and listening impairments, and have strong collaborations with NBRUH and industry. Recent highlights include:
- developing algorithms for improving performance with cochlear implants in reverberant space.
- establishing the role of temporal masking on speech understanding with cochlear implants.
- describing the processing delays that can be tolerated in hearing aids working in wireless systems.
- licensing of commercial production of a noise-reduction system for use in MR scanners.
- establishing (with NBRUH) successful auditory training protocols for older people with tinnitus or newly diagnosed with hearing loss.
- developing a questionnaire of listening skills in children