# Project 2: Central Auditory Integration and Plasticity

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2024 · $512,261

## Abstract

PROJECT 2: ABSTRACT
 Project 2 investigates auditory cognitive mechanisms that contribute to the variability in CI outcome based
on speech-in-noise (SiN) understanding. Understanding SiN is a complex task that requires multiple steps
including the abstraction of the target from crowded auditory scenes, auditory working memory, and attention.
Variation in any of these could affect SiN performance. However, most previous work focused on the status of
the peripheral auditory system, the effect of time and CI usage on adaptation to the new listening device, or
general cognitive and demographic factors. Project 2 aims to fill this gap in our understanding by assessing the
auditory cognitive mechanisms that are responsible for perceiving and attending to acoustic patterns over
frequency and time. These mechanisms operate at a level between the auditory periphery and high-level
language processing, so that Project 2 bridges a gap between Projects 1 and 3.
 First, we will carry out cross-sectional cognitive studies that assess auditory cognition over the timescales of
words and sentences. At the scale of words, in users of traditional CIs (fully electric hearing) we replicate our
initial work that demonstrates correlation between a measure of figure-ground (FG) detection and SiN
performance. We will also test whether adding measures of auditory cognition at the timescale of sentences
allows better prediction of detection of sentences in noise. In addition, for CI users that integrate acoustic and
electric hearing, we also test FG detection in the acoustic and electric frequency ranges and between these
ranges. We will calculate the correlation between these and SiN to assess the importance of grouping within
and across acoustic and electric aspects of hearing.
 Second, we will identify cortical bases for the auditory cognitive processes we identified in Aim 1 determine
SiN ability in CI users. We carry out cross-sectional neuroimaging EEG studies to ask if EEG responses
improve the prediction of SiN based on the cognitive measures of Aim 1. We will test a new EEG measure to
predict sentence-in-noise listening based on endogenous attention. Finally, a study using O-15 water PET will
test a model of SiN perception based on grouping mechanisms in left auditory cortex, and test whether these
occur in the same part of auditory cortex in CI users and normal controls.
 Third, we will examine acoustic+electric CI users longitudinally to test the hypothesis that cognitive and
brain mechanisms for grouping within the electric hearing ranges occur earlier after implantation than grouping
between the A and E ranges.
 Overall, this project will establish cognitive and brain mechanisms for auditory cognition over different
timescales and different frequency ranges that explain SiN detection in CI users. The cognitive measures and
EEG measures are realistic potential clinical tools for identifying non-auditory factors that are related to
outcomes in real world listenin...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10841415
- **Project number:** 5P50DC000242-37
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Inyong Choi
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $512,261
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-09-15 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10841415

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10841415, Project 2: Central Auditory Integration and Plasticity (5P50DC000242-37). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10841415. Licensed CC0.

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