Associate Professor
University at Buffalo
Financial Disclosures: I do not have any relevant financial relationships with anything to disclose.
Non-Financial Disclosures: I do not have any relevant non-financial relationships with anything to disclose.
My research focuses on the effects of hearing loss on central auditory plasticity and tinnitus. In the past fifteen years, I have finished several research projects studying tinnitus and hyperacusis using animal models. In line to the clinic reports, we have found that hearing loss, even a temporary hearing loss caused by perforation of ear drums, can induce a long-term impairment of sound tolerance and loudness increase. Our study suggests that hearing loss can induce significant consequence on auditory perceptional development. Our recent studies also found that noise and blast exposure does not only cause hearing loss, it also neurogenesis of the hippocampus. These findings are consistent with clinical reports that noise exposure and traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause cognitive impairment which exaggerate the symptoms of tinnitus and hyperacusis. We hypothesize that treatment of cognitive impairment can reduce tinnitus and hyperacusis in TBI.