Generic Portal

Research in the department of Clinical and Experimental Audiology is experimental research of the human auditory system targeted to clinical applications in diagnosis, therapy, or rehabilitation of the (impaired) auditory system.

• Otology. Otological projects focus on different aspects of middle ear surgery and implantable hearing hearing devices: bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA) and cochlear implants (CI).
• Prevention of hearing-loss. We conduct several studies on the damaging effects of ototoxicity and noise. Special focus is on the role of oto-acoustic emissions as an early indicator for the sensitivity of the ear for hearing loss due to ototoxic agents or noise. 
• Auditory profile. The projects within this theme cover a number of psychophysical tests, that have been developed to understand the supra-threshold behaviour of the ear for different auditory tasks in communication: e.g. speech perception, discrimination, spatial hearing. The projects are related to loudness perception, auditory filtering, and (the modelling of) speech perception. 
• Rehabilitation. In the field of auditory rehabilitation the main emphasis is on fitting techniques. In addition, there are several projects that evaluate the effects of advanced signal processing in hearing aids, e.g. noise reduction and directionality. Usually, we apply a mixture of laboratory tests and field trials.
• Hearing at work. For hearing-impaired people that experience problems at work we develop new tests and methods to make a detailed and well-structured analysis of the problems, related to the match of (reduced) auditory capacities and auditory demands (at work).