Advanced System for Measuring the Speech-evoked Frequency Following Response

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Hearing impairment is an important public health problem in Canada, and it is expected to increase in significance as the population ages. However, despite major advances in modern digital hearing aids, many users remain dissatisfied with their performance. This points to a pressing need to develop better evaluation tools and technologies for the hearing impaired. One difficulty is that current tests for hearing assessment typically use artificial sounds instead of speech. To address this shortcoming, our research program focuses on emerging technologies based on the Speech-evoked Frequency Following Response (sFFR), which is an electrical signal produced by the sub-cortical auditory system in response to speech recorded non-invasively using electrodes placed on the scalp. Previous work by our group and others has shown that this signal provides an important window into how the brain analyses speech. The requested equipment from Intelligent Hearing Systems (IHS) possesses advanced capabilities that will enable our multidisciplinary team from the University of Ottawa consisting of Dr. Hilmi Dajani (Electrical and Computer Engineering), Dr. Christian Giguère (Audiology), and Dr. Amineh Koravand (Neuro-Audiology) to meet the following research objectives: 1) The development of new approaches to reduce the noise in the sFFR, because the high level of noise has required excessive recording times, 2) The recording and analysis of responses to a comprehensive set of natural speech stimuli, and 3) The development of a new type of hearing aid whose settings can be optimized by monitoring brain activity. Software and hardware options included with the requested IHS equipment will also permit high flexibility for setting up experiments in different acoustic conditions. These capabilities will ensure highly productive use of the requested system over many years. Our research program is expected to have a significant impact in the field of Biomedical Engineering and on hearing assistive technologies. Novel techniques for the assessment of hearing function will be developed, including new signal processing algorithms and instrumentation for detecting sFFRs, improved models of human auditory processing of speech, and new technologies for objective hearing aid fitting. Moreover, Doctoral and Master's students will be trained in multidisciplinary and collaborative research, and so will develop skills of value to the Canadian biomedical and hearing devices industries, the hearing and speech research communities, and healthcare.