The University of Maryland, College Park, is one of the premier research centers in the area of auditory neuroscience. The members of the auditory neuroscience group collaborate as part of the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing (C-CEBH). The breadth of the research opportunities in auditory neuroscience is further extended by our collaborative agreement between on-campus investigators and the intramural faculty of the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIDCD intramural investigators are adjunct faculty members in NACS. Students and postdoctoral fellows in the NACS program may elect to work with any of the faculty from C-CEBH and/or NIDCD, and are encouraged to work across laboratories to broaden their training and research experiences.

Experimental approaches for research in auditory neuroscience are very diverse among the investigators in our joint program. These include: behavior, biochemistry, biophysics, brain imaging, cell biology, computational modeling, molecular biology, neurochemistry, neuroethology, neurophysiology, psychophysics, and ultrastructure. Equally diverse are the species used as research models (e.g., birds, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, humans, and other mammals) to enable us to understand the structure, function, and evolution of the auditory system. Consequently, there are growing research collaborations between UMD and NIDCD investigators, and unparalleled opportunities for research training for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Research facilities include anechoic rooms and an IAC sound-proof suite, an electron microscopy facility housing transmission and scanning electron microscopes, as well as a confocal microscope (and associated preparative equipment for all of these techniques), and several rooms devoted to histology. Facilities for a wide range of other techniques are also available to students as needed. These include neuroanatomy, immunocytochemistry, biochemistry, neurophysiology, light microscopy, psychoacoustics, speech perception, behavioral analysis, and intracellular recording. Machine and electronic shops, as well as facilities for DNA hybridization and nucleic acid sequencing.

The research and training interests of the members of the auditory neuroscience group overlap with those of the neuroethology, speech and language, and several other groups within NACS. This further adds to the research opportunities for students.

Students and postdoctoral fellows are often supported by a training grant to C-CEBH from the NIH. In addition, there is other extensive funding obtained by our faculty, and as a result, students working in auditory neuroscience laboratories at College Park or at NIDCD will be supported during their classroom and research studies.

Students interested in studying auditory neuroscience with our group are strongly encouraged to contact individual faculty members at College Park and at NIDCD whose research program interests them (see below). It should be noted that students may elect to work with any of the auditory neuroscience faculty from C-CEBH and/or NIDCD. No matter where the mentor, students receive their doctorates through the NACS program.



Brauth, Steven E., Psychology

My research interests include neuroethology and brain evolution focusing on the auditory and motor systems.

Brenowitz, Stephan, Acting Chief, Section on Synaptic Transmission,

The Section on Synaptic Transmission investigates the synaptic and biophysical mechanisms that enable neurons to encode and process information. Specifically, we study mechanisms that enable computations in neural circuits of the auditory system. The general question we address is how local circuit interactions shape a neuron's response to physiologically realistic patterns of synaptic inputs, thereby encoding relevant features of sounds. Our experimental approach combines electrophysiology and optical techniques to study synaptic transmission and plasticity in the cochlear nucleus and auditory brainstem. These studies contribute to our understanding of how sensory stimuli are represented by neuronal activity and will enable improvements in treatment of hearing disorders.

Burgess, Shawn, Investigator, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health

Dr. Burgess' Laboratory studies developmental processes and their relation to human genetic disease. His group employs a variety of modern molecular biology methods to identify and functionally characterize novel developmental genes involved in organogenesis of the ear and maintenance of stem cell populations.

Butts, Daniel A., Biology

The NeuroTheory Lab at University of Maryland operates at the interface of neuroscience experiment and theory, using experiments performed by collaborators to ground and validate conceptual frameworks and analytical methodology, and theory to guide experiment design and analysis. Our projects are largely focused on the visual system, where we are studying visual computation in the context of simulated "natural vision" experiments across multiple visual areas (retina, LGN, cortex). There are also projects in other areas including the auditory system, as well as studying synaptic plasticity and brain development. A key component of these projects is the study of how the computations performed by neurons explicitly use time: for example in the temporal patterns of spikes, the relationship to brain rhythms, and particular patterns of activity across neurons.

Carr, Catherine, Biology

Current research is focused both on models of delay line-coincidence detector circuit, and on the assembly of the map of sound location during development of the barn owl. All projects develop from initial behavioral observations into systems, cellular and molecular levels of analysis.

Chadwick, Richard, Chief, Section on Auditory Mechanics, Laboratory of Cellular Biology, National Institutes of Health

The aim of the Section on Auditory Mechanics is to improve basic understanding of the auditory periphery through the combined use of mathematical modeling of cochlear macro-, micro-, and nanomechanics together with structural, biophysical, and physiological data.

Cohen, Leonardo G., Chief, Human Cortical Physiology Section and Stroke Neurorehabilitation Clinic,

The goal of our activity is to understand the mechanisms underlying plastic changes in the human central nervous system and to develop novel therapeutic approaches for recovery of function based on these advances. We utilize transcranial magnetic (TMS)and DC (tDCS) stimulation, fMRI, TMS in combination with fMRI, MR spectroscopy, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), PET scanning and magnetoencephalography (MEG) alone or in combination with brain computer interfaces (BCI). We investigate mechanisms of human plasticity in healthy volunteers and the impact in treatment of patients with stroke.

Cunningham, Lisa , National Institutes of Health

Our research focuses on the mechanosensory hair cells that are the receptor cells of hearing and balance. We are interested in the molecular signals that regulate the survival, homeostasis, and death of these cells. Human hair cells must survive and function for up to a century in order to transduce sound energy into the neural signals of hearing. During this time, the hair cell may encounter multiple toxic stimuli, including excessive sound and/or exposure to therapeutic drugs with ototoxic side effects. We are examining the signals that mediate the survival and death of hair cells under stress. Our studies indicate that heat shock protein (HSP) induction is a critical stress response that can promote survival of hair cells exposed to major stressors. Our studies are broadly divided into two groups: 1) those aimed at understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the protective effects of HSPs and 2) those aimed at translating our findings into clinical therapies to prevent or reverse hearing loss.

Depireux, Didier, Institute for Systems Research

With grant support from DoD, we measure the changes, at the level of the activity of single neurons over many weeks, correlated with the induction of tinnitus (ringing in the ears) following noise trauma. Specifically, the research uses behavioral measures to verify the emergence of tinnitus post-trauma, chronic electrode arrays to measure and compare the activity of large populations of single neurons before and after induction of tinnitus, and post-mortem immunocytochemical methods to uncover permanent changes in the brain. The Ear Lab wants to explore new drug delivery or stimulation methods that might prevent the induction of, or provide relief from, tinnitus, a common affliction that has received very little scientific attention until recently.

Dooling, Robert, Psychology

My areas of research include hearing and vocal communication in birds, and comparative aspects of hearing and animal behavior.

Goupell, Matthew, Hearing and Speech Sciences

We perform psychoacoustical tasks on normal-hearing individuals and those with cochlear-implants to ask questions about binaural hearing, speech understanding, pitch processing, etc. We make computational neural models in an attempt to explain our data and further the understanding of auditory neural processing.

Horiuchi, Timothy, Elec. & Computer Eng

Dr. Horiuchi's research program is centered on the development of neural models of sensorimotor behavior and their implementation in VLSI for use in robotic demonstration systems. The laboratory is currently focused on bat echolocation and other auditory and visual projects.

Kanold, Patrick, Biology

We are interested how experience in early life shapes brain function. Since neural circuits underlie brain function we analyze neural circuits in development but also in adult to understand how circuit differences can give rise to different abilities. By interfering with development, we aim to understand how disruption of early circuit function gives rise to neurological disease. To do this we use in vivo and in vitro physiological and imaging approaches such as single and multielectrode recordings, patch clamp recordings, laser-scanning photostimulation, 2-photon Ca-imaging of large networks, optogenetics, and computational modeling.

MacLeod, Katrina, Biology

All information about an auditory scene is encoded in the auditory nerve, which projects to the cochlear nuclei in the brainstem. Cellular and synaptic specializations in the cochlear nucleus transforms and decodes the auditory signal and extracts different types of information. We use in vitro slice physiology and quantitative modeling of synaptic plasticity and biophysical membrane properties to elucidate how these neural circuits encode sound.

Moss, Cynthia, Psychology

Our research program is directed at understanding auditory information processing and sensorimotor integration in vertebrates. In our lab, the echolocating bat serves as a model system for a neuroethologically-based study of hearing and perceptually-guided behavior.

Popper, Arthur N., Co-Director, Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, Biology

The work in this laboratory is directed at understanding basic structure and function of the auditory system in vertebrates, with particular interest in the ear of fishes and its sensory hair cells. These investigations frequently involve a wide number of teleost species and the use of the comparative approach in order to understand the function of the ear as well as its evolution.

Shamma, Shihab, Elec. & Computer Eng

Dr. Shamma's research over the last 15 years has dealt with issues in computational neuroscience and the development of microsensor systems for experimental research and neural prostheses.

Simon, Jonathan Z., Elec. & Computer Eng, Biology

I am active in a number of research areas, all under the general headings of Auditory Neural Computations and Representations,Computational and Theoretical Neuroscience, and Signal Processing in Biological Systems. My specific research areas are: Magnetoencephalography (MEG): Experimental Research, Analysis, and Signal Processing of Large Scale Neural Data. Coincidence Detection and Neural Coding of Temporal Information in Auditory Brainstem: Modeling. Neural Processing of Spectrotemporal Auditory Information in Mammals: Physiology and Modeling. Signal Processing and Neural Data.

Yager, David D., Psychology

The overarching goal of our laboratory is to find out how insect auditory systems are able to acquire and process acoustic information to yield complex, adaptive behaviors. We are especially interested in the evolution of hearing in insects, and have chosen the very unusual praying mantis ear as a model system.

 

• Aquatic Bioacoustic Lab
• Auditory Neuroethology Lab
• Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Lab
• Computational Sensorimotor System Lab
• Laboratory of Comparative Psychoacoustics
• Neural Systems Laboratory
• NIDCD, Laboratory of Cellular Biology
• Yager Lab