Training Grant

Contents

  • T32- DC00012 Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication
  • Current Research Interests and Activities of Core Faculty

    • T32- DC00012 Training in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication

    The T32 Training Grant from NIH provides support for the interdisciplinary training program in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication at Indiana University. The program, provides specialized research training in the Communications Sciences and Disorders for postdoctoral and predoctoral trainees.

    In addition, the program also provides short-term summer research traineeships for medical students so they can gain first-hand experience in basic and clinical research. Faculty and laboratory facilities for the training program will be drawn from the departments of Psychology, Linguistics, and Speech and Hearing Sciences in Bloomington and the departments of Otolaryngology and Radiology in the School of Medicine in Indianapolis.

    The program has ten core faculty members and an additional twenty-six affiliated faculty, all of whom are carrying out research on a wide range of basic and clinical problems in the Communication Sciences and Disorders. Trainees will be expected to carry out research in one or more of the core or affiliated laboratories and gain specialized knowledge and expertise in areas such as: speech analysis, synthesis and perception; anatomy and physiology of the auditory system; psychophysics of hearing and complex sound perception; acoustic and articulatory phonetics; experimental and clinical phonology; perceptual development, phonological acquisition and development; tactile psychophysics and perception; clinical audiology, speech-language pathology, hearing impairment and cochlear implants; spoken word recognition and lexical access; and real-time spoken language comprehension processes.

    Postdoctoral trainees will be drawn from Speech and Hearing Sciences, Clinical Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, Linguistics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Cognitive Psychology and Sensory Psychology. Predoctoral trainees will be drawn from the Ph.D. programs in Psychology, Linguistics, and Speech and Hearing Sciences as well as the interdisciplinary Cognitive Science and Neural Science programs in Bloomington.

    As in the past, training activities will consist of: (1) individual and collaborative research projects in one of the core research laboratories; (2) participation in weekly laboratory meetings, research seminars, journal clubs and specialized workshops, and attendance at scientific or professional meetings; and (3) as needed, formal coursework in Psychology, Speech & Hearing Sciences, Linguistics, Cognitive Science or Neural Science. Access to clinical populations for research is available through the Speech and Hearing Clinic in Bloomington and the ENT Clinic at the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis. Our long-term goal is to provide broad interdisciplinary research training in the Communication Sciences and Disorders and to encourage novel and creative approaches to basic and clinical research problems in Speech, Hearing and Sensory Communication.

    Women and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply. Indiana University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. NIH guidelines require that the individual to be trained must be a citizen or a non-citizen national of the United States or have been lawfully admitted for permanent residence at the time of appointment.”

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    Current Research Interests and Activities of Core Faculty

    David B. Pisoni, PhD, Program Director, Chancellors’ Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences and Cognitive Science, Adjunct Professor of Linguistics, Adjunct Professor of Speech & Hearing Sciences, IUB; Adjunct Professor of Otolaryngology–HNS, IUSM

    ● Spoken word recognition and lexical access

    ● Variation and variability of speech

    ● Multi-modal perception of speech

    ● Hearing impairment and cochlear implants in adults, children and infants

    ● Individual differences in speech and language processing

    ● Working memory dynamics and verbal rehearsal processes

    Tonya Bergeson-Dana, PhD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology–HNS, IUSM

    ● Perceptual and cognitive development

    ● Hearing impairment in infants and children

    ● Infant-directed speech

    ● Multimodal speech perception and development

    ● Music perception

    James C. Craig, PhD, Chancellors’ Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, IUB

    ● Combining information presented to several skin sites

    ● Presenting speech information effectively through the skin

    ● Role of temporal masking in perception of sequential patterns

    ● Role of attention in the perception of tactile patterns

    ● Integration of kinesthetic and tactile information

    Daniel A. Dinnsen, PhD, Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science and Adjunct Professor of Speech & Hearing Sciences, IUB

    ● Phonological theory

    ● Interaction of phonological rules, typological universals and substantive constraints

    ● Cognitive aspects of phonology

    ● Speech disorders in children

    ● Characterization of phonological systems and relationship to learning patterns

    ● Relationship between phonology and phonetics; phonetic implementation rules

    Judith A. Gierut, PhD, Professor of Speech & Hearing Sciences and Cognitive Science and Adjunct Professor of Linguistics, IUB

    ● Approaches to the clinical treatment of phonological disorders

    ● Cross-linguistic study of normal phonological acquisition

    ● Phonological categories and models of phonological development

    ● Relationship between perception and production in phonological development

    ● Phonemic structure of the systems of speech disordered children

    Derek Houston, PhD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology–HNS, IUSM

    ● Infant speech perception

    ● Effects of early experience on development

    ● Early word learning

    ● Development of attention, learning and memory

    Larry E. Humes, PhD, Professor of Speech & Hearing Sciences, IUB, Adjunct Professor of Otolaryngology–HNS, IUSM

    ● Auditory masking and loudness perception in normal and hearing-impaired listeners

    ● Examining factors associated with the speech-recognition difficulties of the elderly

    ● Development of clinical tools used in the evaluation of hearing aids

    Richard T. Miyamoto, MD, FACS, Arilla Spence DeVault Professor of Otolaryngology–HNS, IUSM

    ● Comparative studies of speech and language skills in children with cochlear implants

    ● Speech perception in cochlear implant patients

    ● Medical and surgical issues of cochlear implantation

    Andrew Saykin, PsyD, Professor of Radiology, Neurology and Psychiatry, IUSM

    ● Neural imaging of memory and cognitive processes

    ● Cognitive brain disorders/neuropsychological function

    ● Early predictors of MCI and Alzheimer’s disease

    ● Neural, cognitive and genetic mechanisms of chemotherapy-induced cognitive decline

    Dale Sengelaub, PhD, Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Neuroscience and Biology, IUB

    ● Nervous system development and activity-dependent processes

    ● Adult neural plasticity and reorganization after damage or disease

    ● Motor system development

    ● Effects of experience on development

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