Title:
Improving, understanding, and treating hearing loss via large-scale electrophysiology and deep learning

Abstract:
Despite decades of research, our understanding of hearing and hearing loss at the neural network level remains superficial, largely because the auditory system is highly nonlinear and not amenable to classical systems identification approaches. But recent advances in methods for neural recording and modeling have created new opportunities to study auditory processing in its full complexity.

In this talk, I will describe how we are using these new methods to advance our fundamental understanding of hearing loss and pursue empirical solutions for improved hearing aids.

Speaker Biography:
I began my research career as a PhD student with Garrett Stanley at Harvard University, where I studied how visual information is encoded in the spiking activity of neurons in the thalamus. I investigated the role of the thalamic ‘burst-mode’ and adaptation to stimulus contrast and correlations during the processing of natural visual scenes. In parallel with these experimental studies, I also developed several computational approaches for the analysis of neural activity patterns to assess the role of adaptive filtering. This work shaped my perspective on a number of issues that remain central to my research, such as the importance of studying sensory processing under natural conditions, the power of combining experimental and modeling approaches across multiple levels of detail, and the importance (and pleasure) of pursuing ambitious agendas through multi-lab collaborative efforts.

After finishing my PhD, I received a short fellowship to study the encoding of visual information in the retina under Toshihiko Hosoya at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and then worked for several years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich with Benedikt Grothe. During this time, I completed several studies of the auditory midbrain focusing on encoding sound intensity and location. My experience in Munich was critical as it provided my foundational training in auditory neuroscience and expanded my perspective on sensory processing to include consideration of broader ecological context. During this time, I also began to develop techniques for recording activity from networks of neurons that still form the basis of my experimental research today.

I started my own research group in Munich with support from the Emmy Noether Programme of the German Research Foundation in 2009 and moved to UCL as a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellow in 2010. I became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in 2016 and a Professor of Neuroengineering in 2018.