Audiology Research Lab Virtual Tours

Kelcey Buck Author

03/27/2020 Added

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Three audiology faculty from the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders guide viewers through virtual tours of their respective labs to discuss their research. \\ 0:03 – Marc Brennan's Amplification & Perception Lab // 4:55 – Michelle Hughes' Cochlear Implant Research Lab // 7:29 – Amanda Rodriguez's The Concussion and Vestibular Evaluation Lab \\

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[00:00:06.090]Hi, I'm Dr. Brennan.
[00:00:07.740]I am the Director
[00:00:08.900]of the Amplification and Perception Laboratory here.
[00:00:12.760]I'm also the Director of the Audiology program.
[00:00:17.280]Today I'm gonna show you my lab.
[00:00:19.140]As you know, children and adults with hearing loss
[00:00:22.450]face a lot of communication difficulties.
[00:00:25.530]There are a high proportion of adults,
[00:00:28.690]upwards of 70% in the older category
[00:00:32.440]that have a hearing loss.
[00:00:34.300]And yet, most adults are not wearing their hearing aids
[00:00:38.240]or do not have hearing aids.
[00:00:40.930]So they're facing significant communication difficulties.
[00:00:45.550]Our goal is to try to improve
[00:00:48.560]the way that hearing aids work.
[00:00:50.450]I'm gonna show you some of the things that we're working on
[00:00:54.350]to try to do that.
[00:00:57.860]This is my lab.
[00:00:59.780]We've got a conference table here.
[00:01:02.030]This is where we meet and have meetings
[00:01:05.990]and talk about some of our latest findings.
[00:01:11.196]We have a TV monitor over here
[00:01:14.250]where we can display some of our latest results
[00:01:19.520]or communicate with our collaborators.
[00:01:24.080]We also, when we have participants,
[00:01:26.030]they come in here
[00:01:26.900]and this is where we explain the study to them
[00:01:30.630]and consent the participants.
[00:01:33.640]We've got a number of equipment over here.
[00:01:38.360]We've got a computer over here
[00:01:40.580]that we are gonna use in the future
[00:01:43.360]for a sound array that we are in the process of creating.
[00:01:48.690]We have a mannequin called Kemar
[00:01:53.190]and we can use Kemar to take measurements
[00:01:56.830]of how hearing aids respond.
[00:01:59.900]So we can play different types of sounds
[00:02:03.630]such as background noise
[00:02:05.180]and then measure how that would actually sound
[00:02:09.220]for an average adult
[00:02:11.110]so that we can try to better figure out
[00:02:13.400]what some of these hearing aids are doing.
[00:02:16.250]We've got a bunch of equipment over here
[00:02:19.710]such as calibration equipment
[00:02:24.103]and different cavities for measuring the output
[00:02:27.588]of hearing aids and headphones, et cetera.
[00:02:29.900]This is our set up for running the experiments.
[00:02:33.070]So this is our experimental computer.
[00:02:37.510]We also have an audiometer over here
[00:02:41.120]so that we can do hearing tests.
[00:02:45.120]And then I'll show you the booth.
[00:02:47.200]So we've got a ramp here
[00:02:48.840]so that people with a wheelchair can get into our booth.
[00:02:52.220]A Verifit and it's on a standing desk
[00:02:55.730]so that we can get it down low for kids
[00:02:57.660]or for testing kids
[00:02:58.890]or we can get it up a little bit higher for adults.
[00:03:02.300]We use this Verifit so that we can measure
[00:03:05.440]the output of hearing aids
[00:03:06.920]and then get it set appropriately
[00:03:08.730]for the participant's hearing loss.
[00:03:13.020]We've got some equipment over here
[00:03:15.690]for testing infants and young children using VRA.
[00:03:22.490]We've got a tymp machine over here
[00:03:24.590]so that we can check the status
[00:03:26.340]of the middle ear.
[00:03:28.260]Then we have a touchscreen over here.
[00:03:30.740]A lot of our tests, like for example,
[00:03:34.200]we're looking at how we can improve
[00:03:37.310]the ability of people to hear different sounds
[00:03:41.290]when they're in background noise,
[00:03:42.600]'cause that's a huge problem.
[00:03:44.910]Interestingly, a lot of the literature out there
[00:03:47.930]suggests that hearing aids make that ability worse
[00:03:51.020]and that's not what we wanna do,
[00:03:52.270]we wanna make it better.
[00:03:53.660]So we're looking at ways to try to make hearing aids better
[00:03:58.070]in terms of your ability to separate out different sounds
[00:04:01.220]when you're in that background noise.
[00:04:02.830]So what we do is participants come in here.
[00:04:05.490]They sit down here.
[00:04:07.250]We do a hearing test.
[00:04:09.670]Then we're playing different sounds to them
[00:04:12.960]typically over headphones
[00:04:14.520]'cause we're doing a lot of these studies
[00:04:17.250]with a hearing aid simulator.
[00:04:19.720]Using that allows us to precisely control
[00:04:22.920]the stimuli that we're presenting to them.
[00:04:26.320]Then we're presenting those sounds
[00:04:27.760]from different directions
[00:04:30.010]with the hearing aid simulator
[00:04:33.488]and the listener's task is to indicate
[00:04:36.380]if they hear a difference
[00:04:37.590]or where that sound is coming from.
[00:04:40.400]Then we're manipulating different settings
[00:04:42.320]to try to see if we can improve that ability.
[00:04:46.160]That's the Amplification and Perception Laboratory.
[00:04:49.430]Thank you for touring this facility with me.
[00:04:54.020]I hope that you will come here.
[00:04:55.310]Thank you.
[00:04:59.000]Hi, I'm Dr. Michelle Hughes.
[00:05:01.030]I'm the Director of the Cochlear Implant Research Lab.
[00:05:04.400]We have quite a few projects going on here.
[00:05:07.290]My research is
[00:05:09.940]aimed at comparing some physiological measures
[00:05:13.990]with perceptual measures in cochlear implants.
[00:05:16.570]I also have another whole line of research
[00:05:19.270]that's targeted toward tele-practice with cochlear implants.
[00:05:24.110]Then we are currently working on developing
[00:05:26.670]some new projects where we are planning
[00:05:29.560]to develop a whole new speech perception test
[00:05:32.340]that's gonna be revolutionary.
[00:05:35.490]We are also embarking on a new study
[00:05:37.540]to look at the ototoxicity effects
[00:05:40.780]of illicit drug use and chronic alcohol use
[00:05:45.310]on the hearing and vestibular system.
[00:05:47.380]So I'll kinda show you around the lab a little bit.
[00:05:49.430]We've got our standard sound booth.
[00:05:52.920]If you can come on in here and follow me.
[00:05:56.110]We have our nice comfy recliner
[00:05:58.410]that is set up for evoked potentials testing
[00:06:01.700]so that our research participants
[00:06:05.110]can just sit there and relax
[00:06:06.970]while we test them.
[00:06:08.260]We've got equipment to do
[00:06:12.375]auditory brain stem response testing
[00:06:15.250]with either acoustic or electrical stimulation
[00:06:17.700]through a cochlear implant.
[00:06:19.760]They can sit and watch TV while we test them.
[00:06:22.770]We can make measurements of just the auditory nerve
[00:06:26.400]through the cochlear implant.
[00:06:28.660]Here we can have people sit
[00:06:29.990]and do speech perception testing.
[00:06:32.940]We're fully set up with an audiometer,
[00:06:35.560]tympanometer, just basic clinical testing.
[00:06:39.550]If we wanna head back out here,
[00:06:41.880]I'll show you a little bit more that we have going on.
[00:06:46.330]We've got standard audiometric equipment,
[00:06:49.900]audiometer, tymps and reflexes,
[00:06:52.560]and then we have all of our peripheral equipment
[00:06:56.050]for cochlear implant testing.
[00:06:59.940]We have conference space.
[00:07:02.936]We have a TV there that
[00:07:04.310]we can project computers to for lab meetings
[00:07:08.410]and have video conferencing capabilities.
[00:07:11.680]Basically we're set up to do pretty much any kind
[00:07:14.330]of audiological testing with or without cochlear implants.
[00:07:18.230]We're also doing a lot of testing now,
[00:07:21.390]some studies geared toward cognitive function
[00:07:24.550]in people with hearing loss and cochlear implants.
[00:07:27.150]So that's kind of exciting and new for us.
[00:07:33.170]Hello, my name is Amanda Rodriguez.
[00:07:34.850]I'm Assistant Professor
[00:07:35.910]of the Department of Education, Communication Disorders.
[00:07:38.770]My laboratory is the Concussion
[00:07:40.240]and Vestibular Evaluation lab
[00:07:41.570]or the CAVE lab.
[00:07:43.030]So the purpose of our laboratory
[00:07:44.560]is that we actually get to test
[00:07:45.860]student athletes here at Nebraska,
[00:07:47.980]pre and post concussion.
[00:07:49.280]After concussion, it's not uncommon
[00:07:50.980]for a student athlete to experience dizziness,
[00:07:53.100]imbalance or problems with their vision.
[00:07:55.250]So we actually go through a full battery
[00:07:57.260]of their baseline before they start athletic practice
[00:07:59.940]here at Nebraska.
[00:08:01.210]We assess their eyes, their inner ears
[00:08:02.990]and their balance function.
[00:08:04.310]One way that we do that is we use videonystagmography
[00:08:06.940]which is the use of these goggles here.
[00:08:08.680]They've got a camera
[00:08:09.530]and the camera is able
[00:08:10.450]to record a student athlete's eye movements
[00:08:12.640]while they do a series of tasks.
[00:08:14.290]For example, they would be sitting in this chair
[00:08:16.020]looking at a light bar
[00:08:17.570]which has a stimulus, has a light.
[00:08:19.310]They would follow the light back and forth
[00:08:20.780]with their eyes.
[00:08:21.800]What we're able to record from their eye movements
[00:08:25.207]is on this screen here,
[00:08:26.040]we're able to determine what each eye is doing.
[00:08:29.130]Are both eyes working together,
[00:08:30.640]which is what we want.
[00:08:32.545]The great thing about these tools
[00:08:33.750]is that we can objectively measure
[00:08:35.320]how well their eyes are performing
[00:08:37.440]before concussion and then after a concussion
[00:08:40.010]which is really helpful to document their progress
[00:08:41.810]and helps us determine if they're ready
[00:08:43.340]to return to play
[00:08:44.350]and return to learn in the classroom.
[00:08:46.510]Another test that we do is really novel to Nebraska.
[00:08:48.950]It's called the Vestibular Evoked Myogenic Potential test.
[00:08:52.170]It's this box here with a bunch of electrodes.
[00:08:54.860]This test allows us
[00:08:55.950]to look at the inner ear function particularly.
[00:08:58.750]We're the only program in Nebraska that's able
[00:09:00.810]to look at inner ear function to this level.
[00:09:03.730]What we're finding in our research is that
[00:09:05.080]after concussion, it's not uncommon
[00:09:06.750]for student athletes' inner ear function to change
[00:09:09.700]little by little.
[00:09:10.710]This test allows us to measure their inner ear function
[00:09:13.510]and their progress,
[00:09:15.150]as they play through Nebraska,
[00:09:16.560]and if that inner ear function changes.
[00:09:18.610]So with this test we're able to measure
[00:09:20.990]electrophysiology and look at the actual nerve integrity
[00:09:24.230]of the left and right inner ear.
[00:09:26.120]The next thing that we do as part of our baseline
[00:09:28.360]as well as any post-injuries,
[00:09:29.550]is also test the student athletes' hearing.
[00:09:32.010]We're able to tell if there are any changes
[00:09:33.650]to their ear at the peripheral level.
[00:09:35.570]We also check their middle ear function
[00:09:37.080]using tympanometry.
[00:09:38.400]The next test that we do is called
[00:09:39.710]the Video Head Impulse Test.
[00:09:41.000]This is a really novel test to vestibular testing
[00:09:44.010]that we are able to determine
[00:09:45.550]the integrity of the inner ear
[00:09:47.840]in conjunction with VEMPs.
[00:09:49.700]This test has a little,
[00:09:50.920]the student athlete wears the goggles.
[00:09:52.510]It's got a camera in it.
[00:09:53.820]We're actually able to move the head left and right
[00:09:55.890]and record what the eye is doing in real time.
[00:09:58.130]This is a direct measure
[00:09:58.963]of the vestibular-ocular reflex
[00:10:00.800]and that's really important to measure
[00:10:02.130]before and after a concussion
[00:10:03.560]to determine if a student athlete's gonna need rehab
[00:10:06.090]to improve their vestibular-ocular reflex function.
[00:10:08.890]If we think about an athlete,
[00:10:09.960]they need to be able to move their head quickly,
[00:10:11.950]keeping their eyes on a target very nice and steady.
[00:10:14.420]So this test allows us to measure what their eyes are doing
[00:10:16.690]with head movement and body movement.
[00:10:20.040]From the graph here we can determine any subtle changes
[00:10:23.180]in their vestibular-ocular reflex function
[00:10:25.630]from left and to right ear.
[00:10:27.980]The last test that we do in our baseline
[00:10:30.320]as well as any research we do with our athletes,
[00:10:33.110]is a measure of balance function.
[00:10:35.400]Balance function really
[00:10:36.500]is how you integrate your eyes,
[00:10:38.200]your sense of touch
[00:10:39.033]and your inner ears together
[00:10:40.330]to help you perform.
[00:10:41.163]This test is called the CDP test,
[00:10:44.790]that's your organization test.
[00:10:46.620]It basically, it is a static balance function test.
[00:10:49.563]So a student athlete would stand on a force plate.
[00:10:52.060]This force plate would measure his postural sway,
[00:10:53.920]how well they're able to keep their balance
[00:10:55.630]and how much they sway front to back
[00:10:57.480]and left to right.
[00:10:58.890]In this test, we actually change a lot of dynamics
[00:11:02.160]about the actual environment.
[00:11:03.670]So we can make the force plate move
[00:11:05.980]and see how well the athlete
[00:11:07.080]can counteract that movement.
[00:11:08.770]We can make the visual surround move
[00:11:10.400]and counteract that athlete's visual input.
[00:11:13.980]Then we make them do really hard tasks,
[00:11:16.060]like make them close their eyes,
[00:11:17.570]or we have them stand on the force plate
[00:11:19.410]while it's moving
[00:11:20.243]and have the visual surround move at the same time.
[00:11:22.620]So now we're really seeing how well the athlete
[00:11:24.760]utilizes their inner ear to maintain balance.
[00:11:27.800]This is a great test to use
[00:11:29.200]when we're looking at baseline
[00:11:30.760]but really important test to use
[00:11:32.540]after any concussion.
[00:11:34.020]What we're finding is that
[00:11:35.070]as an athlete's able to report
[00:11:36.620]that they feel symptom-free,
[00:11:38.150]these tests allow us to objectively measure
[00:11:40.550]how well they're actually recovering
[00:11:42.330]from their concussion
[00:11:43.270]and makes us and our sports medicine team
[00:11:46.030]really confident to know
[00:11:47.070]they're ready to return to play
[00:11:48.380]and return to the classroom.

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Audiology Research Lab Virtual Tours

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