# Project 3: Central Auditory Integration and Plasticity

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2021 · $446,234

## Abstract

Program Director/Principal Investigator (Last, First, Middle): Gantz, Bruce J.
PROJECT SUMMARY – PROJECT 3
The most important deficit faced by people with hearing impairment is understanding acoustic information—
particularly speech—in noisy real-world environments. The central goal of this project is to understand the
cognitive and neural bases of hearing impaired listeners' abilities to detect complex auditory objects in
simulations of noisy real-life environments. Work on normal hearing listeners has identified fundamental
cognitive and cortical mechanisms for perceiving auditory objects in noisy backgrounds, and there are
established cortical mechanisms for perceiving of speech in noise. In both cases mechanisms in auditory
cortex are active during the abstraction of complex objects from noisy backgrounds, and provide input into
networks that allow further perceptual, attentional and semantic analysis. These brain networks have not yet
been characterized in hearing impaired listeners, and it is not clear if auditory object detection contributes to
speech perception in a way that cannot be predicted by peripheral hearing alone. Aim 1 applies a new
measure of the ability to detect complex (non-speech) auditory objects in noise, and relates this to more
standard speech in noise perception in a range of hearing impaired listeners. This is done to determine
whether of speech in noise in hearing impaired listeners depends on mechanisms for cross-frequency grouping
and examine how that dependence differs in patients with impaired acoustic hearing or a CI. Aim 2 relates
brain activation (measured with high density EEG) to performance on these two tasks and measures of
peripheral auditory function to identify differences in cortical activation in impaired listeners that are not solely a
function of their poor peripheral input. Aim 3 conducts a longitudinal study to examine changes in the cortical
systems for detecting generic auditory objects and speech in noise. We examine the same patients before
implantation and 1, 3, 6 and 24 months post implantation using a combination of EEG, Positon Emission
Tomography, (to achieve spatially precise measure of cortical activation)and behavioral measures. This will
determine how the abilities to detect complex objects and speech in background noise—and the neural
substrates that support these abilities—changes with experience with a hearing device.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10063446
- **Project number:** 5P50DC000242-34
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Tim Griffiths
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $446,234
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10063446

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10063446, Project 3: Central Auditory Integration and Plasticity (5P50DC000242-34). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10063446. Licensed CC0.

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