Auditory Cognition Group

We study the normal perception of complex sound relevant to the analysis of speech, music and environmental sounds and the brain bases for this. We study the brain bases using behavioural and neurophysiological models, functional imaging with functional MRI, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography and electrode recordings in neurosurgical patients. The work concerns auditory perception and involves the auditory system in the brainstem and auditory cortex. But auditory cognition also involves attention, memory and emotional responses and requires many brain systems that are not conventionally considered parts of the auditory brain. A major focus of our current work is to establish key aspects of auditory cognition that determine the ability of subjects with hearing loss to detect speech in noise. Problems with this are associated with hearing loss when the ear does not work properly, but subjects with hearing loss have widely differing abilities determined by brain mechanisms as well. We also study the effect of brain disorders on auditory cognition. A number of disorders are associated with deficient auditory cognition including common developmental disorders like dyslexia, acquired disorders like stroke and degenerative disorders like dementia. Tinnitus and auditory hallucinations are derangements of auditory cognition. We also study disorders of emotional sound analysis. Work is carried out at Newcastle University Medical School, the Wellcome Centre for Human NeuroImaging at University College London, and at the Human Brain Research Laboratory at the University of Iowa. Members of our group are based at all three centres. Our work is supported by Wellcome Trust (WT) UK, Medical Research Council (MRC) UK, and National Institute of Health (NIH) USA.