Individual differences and variability in outcomes following cochlear implantation and auditory brain stem implantation remain significant unresolved problems. In this talk I will present the results of research we have carried out on three exceptional adults with significant hearing loss who received implants. Two of the patients received cochlear implants; the third received an Auditory Brainstem Implant. Case-reports on these three individuals have provided us with a novel way of investigating the foundational information processing mechanisms underlying variability in outcomes. All three adults displayed exceptionally good speech recognition outcomes following implantation and were administered a novel test battery to measure their auditory, speech-language, and neurocognitive functioning to uncover their strengths, weaknesses, and milestones. Our results suggest that current clinical outcome measures used to assess the benefits following implantation should be expanded beyond conventional endpoint product measures to include more sensitive robust tests of speech recognition and neurocognitive functioning.

About the speaker:
David B. Pisoni is currently a Distinguished Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Chancellor’s Professor of Cognitive Science at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences and Linguistics at IU where he has taught undergraduate and graduate classes in Cognitive Psychology and carried out basic, applied and clinical research on speech perception and spoken language processing. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Otolaryngology—HNS at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis where he carries out clinical research on hearing and cochlear implants in deaf children and adults.

Dr. Pisoni is one of the world’s leading research scientists in the field of Communication Sciences and Disorders. Over his 55 year career at IU, he has carried out seminal research on human speech perception, spoken word recognition, language processing, and perceptual development in infants and children. He has also carried out pioneering research on several applied problems for the United States Air Force dealing with the perception of synthesized speech in cognitively demanding environments as well as the effects of noise on speech production. For the last 33 years he has also worked at the IU School of Medicine on numerous clinical problems associated with hearing impairment in deaf children and adults who have received cochlear implants. This program of research has had important clinical applications for understanding the enormous variability in speech and language outcomes following implantation. Throughout his career, Professor Pisoni has made significant contributions in basic, applied and clinical research in areas of speech and language processing. As the founding Program Director of the Indiana University, NIDCD T32 training program in Speech, Hearing, and Sensory Communication, he was closely involved in training and mentoring undergraduates, graduate students, medical students, and postdoctoral research fellows who worked closely with him and other faculty in the research laboratories in Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Established thanks to a generous gift from the Pollack family, the Irwin Pollack Lecture Series features world-class speakers in the fields of psychophysics, cognition, and perception. This inaugural lecture will be held as a Zoom watch party at the Michigan League in the Henderson room followed by a reception in the Hussey room. The talk will be recorded. For questions, please contact psych.admin@umich.edu.