Benjamin Dieudonné obtained his PhD!

Congratulations to Benjamin Dieudonné for successfully defending his PhD on "Binaural hearing with a cochlear implant and a hearing aid". Defending in COVID-19 times is a bit different (as evident from the 'behind-the-scenes' picture below), but a small celebration with a beer was still part of the event. Well done, Benjamin!

Ben Somers defended his PhD!

Three weeks ago, Ben Somers publicly defended his PhD thesis about improving cochlear implants by making use of brainwaves. Due to the corona measures, the defense was held online and the celebration afterwards happened in a smaller social circle. Nevertheless it was a successful evening! Congratulations, Ben!

ExpORL in the KU Leuven-news: neurosteered hearing aids

ExpORL and ESAT of  KU Leuven are making good progress in the development of neuro-steered hearing aids. In a scenario with multiple speakers, these hearing aids can sense who you are trying to listen to and amplify that speaker specifically. Thanks to research of Tom Francart, Simon Geirnaert and Alexander Bertrand, we are now able to identify the target speaker within 1 second. Read more about these amazing developments in the articles linked below:

English: https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2020/which-speaker-are-you-listening-to-new-technique-paves-way-for-hearing-aids-that-use-brainwaves-to-find-out

Dutch: https://nieuws.kuleuven.be/nl/2020/hoorapparaat-van-de-toekomst-luistert-naar-hersengolven

Vtm nieuws also covered this in their news broadcast. That video is included below:

Seminar Bernd Accou - 22 October 2020

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Invitation Seminar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences Estimating speech intelligibility with neural networks. Bernd Accou When? Thursday, 22 October 2020, 14:00 Location Seminar room HP 7 O&N 2 - KU Leuven Herestraat 49 B-3000 Leuven Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://zoom.us/j/91640521161?pwd=b1I0WElLaGFQWlNFaDA1T09RallUQT09 Meeting ID: 916 4052 1161 Passcode: 5aVXPn Abstract Current tests to measure whether a person can understand speech require behavioral responses from the person, which is not always possible in practice (e.g. young children). Therefore there is a need for objective measures of speech intelligibility. Recently, it has been shown that speech intelligibility can be measured by letting a person listen to natural speech, recording the electroencephalogram (EEG) and decoding the speech envelope from the EEG signal. We defined a different paradigm wherein we match/mismatch speech envelope segments to EEG with neural networks instead of decoding speech envelopes from EEG. In this research seminar, I will present the results of our new approach and our dilated convolutional model, as well as a new method to estimate speech reception thresholds. Please reply to bernd.accou@kuleuven.be if you are planning to attend the presentation in person. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, only the supervisory committee, the presenting PhD student and 18 other people are allowed to attend the seminar in person. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Seminar Tine Arras - 28 October 2020

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Invitation Seminar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences Language and hearing skills of single-sided deaf children with or without a cochlear implant. Tine Arras When? Wednesday, 28 October 2020, 11:00 Location Seminar room HP 1 O&N 2 - KU Leuven Herestraat 49 B-3000 Leuven Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://zoom.us/j/95059024872?pwd=Q0lGK2hFSHVjNlBrMVp0TWU0WUJjdz09 Abstract Single-sided deafness (SSD) affects spatial hearing skills due to a lack of binaural hearing. As a result, individuals with SSD experience problems with understanding speech in noise and with localizing sounds. In children, limited audibility can cause speech-language delays, cognitive and socio-emotional problems, and academic underachievement. By restoring hearing on the deaf side using a cochlear implant (CI), it may be possible to restore binaural hearing and improve developmental outcomes. In the CICADE study, we track the development of two groups of single-sided deaf children: 16 with and 17 without a CI. In my research seminar, I would like to discuss our main findings so far in terms of both hearing and language skills. Please reply to tine.arras@kuleuven.be if you are planning to attend the presentation in person. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, only the supervisory committee, the presenting PhD student and 18 other people are allowed to attend the seminar in person. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Webinar Marlies Gillis

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Invitation Research Webinar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences Neural tracking evaluated over different populations and over different language representations. Marlies Gillis When? Wednesday, 16 September 2020, 14:00 Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/72820189963?pwd=QzJVRmpJRWRUZGVPSjc3SkhsU0pLUT09 Meeting ID: 728 2018 9963 Passcode: 2gz7Hy Abstract In this research seminar, I would like to focus on 2 recent findings. Firstly, we found that the latency of the neural responses might play an important role in understanding the neural basis of a hearing loss. As the severity of the degree of hearing loss increases, this latency of the neural responses increases as well. This might indicate that persons with a hearing loss show decreased efficiency in neural processing of speech. Secondly, we concluded that higher level language features can be tracked in Dutch short stories. Moreover, we showed that these responses are similar across stories with different context and different speakers. This suggests that the responses to these higher level language features resemble higher level language processes in the brain. Please reply to this email if you are planning to attend the presentation. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, this research seminar has been converted to a webinar. Only the supervisory committee and the presenting PhD student are allowed to attend the seminar in person, if it is desirable. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Webinar Wouter David - 28 August 2020

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Invitation Research Webinar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences TEMPEST framework: neural tracking to stimuli with speech-relevant temporal envelope. Wouter David When? Friday, 28 August 2020, 14:00 Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://zoom.us/j/94294897364?pwd=cVd2SCtRM3R1cFNaekhKMFg2VEpMdz09 Please reply to this email if you are planning to attend the presentation. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, this research seminar has been converted to a webinar. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Webinar Shauni Van Herck - 10 September 2020

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Invitation Research Webinar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences Preventive intervention effects in pre-reading children at cognitive risk for dyslexia. Shauni Van Herck When? Thursday, 10 September 2020, 10:00 Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://meet.kuleuven.be/shauni.vanherck/7YL3KJC6 Abstract It has been hypothesized that deficits in auditory temporal processing are underlying phonological processing problems in dyslexia. At the same time, envelope enhancement (EE) strategies have shown potential to reduce at least some of these deficits. Interventions for dyslexia are however mostly provided after the most effective intervention period. To overcome this paradox we need to develop preventive interventions. In this research seminar, I will present the results of a preventive intervention in children at cognitive risk for dyslexia at both the behavioral and the neurophysiological level, using an auditory perceptive task and ASSRs. Please reply to this email if you are planning to attend the presentation. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, this research seminar has been converted to a webinar. Only the supervisory committee and the presenting PhD student are allowed to attend the seminar in person, if it is desirable. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Webinar Babette Maessen - 25 August 2020

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Invitation Research Webinar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences The relation between spontaneous hand gestures, stuttering and intelligibility in individuals with Down syndrome. Babette Maessen When? Tuesday, 25 August 2020, 10:00 Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://meet.kuleuven.be/babette.maessen/83GSGLT8 Abstract Individuals with Down syndrome often present with language production problems wherefore they are able to compensate with spontaneous hand gestures. These individuals also often present which stuttering but it is unknown if they are able to use gestures to compensate for these speech problems. Therefore, we investigate the gesture-speech relationship in individuals with Down syndrome who stutter and the effect these gestures might have on their speech intelligibility. In this research seminar, I will present the results of two of our studies involving stuttering in individuals with Down syndrome. I will also inform you about our new study concerning the effect of gesture on the intelligibility of stuttering events in individuals with Down syndrome. Please reply to this email if you are planning to attend the presentation. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, this research seminar has been converted to a webinar. Only the supervisory committee and the presenting PhD student are allowed to attend the seminar in person, if it is desirable. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven

Webinar Jill Kries - 15 September 2020

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Invitation Research Webinar ExpORL, Dept. Neurosciences A neurodiagnostic measure for aphasia: capturing speech processing mechanisms via neural tracking. Jill Kries When? Tuesday, 15 September 2020, 13:00 Online access The research webinar can be accessed through the following link: https://meet.kuleuven.be/jill.kries/9chlg645 Abstract EEG research in the aphasia population has mainly focused on ERP paradigms with artificial stimuli so far. However, little is known about processing of natural, connected speech in aphasia. Therefore, we investigated neural responses to connected speech in people with aphasia in the chronic phase after stroke, as well as in younger and older adults. In the seminar, I will discuss whether it is possible to measure speech processing via neural tracking in people with aphasia and how it differs from control groups. Could this method present a possible neuromarker for aphasia? Please reply to this email if you are planning to attend the presentation. In order to comply with current Covid-19 regulations, this research seminar has been converted to a webinar. Only the supervisory committee and the presenting PhD student are allowed to attend the seminar in person, if it is desirable. Thank you for your understanding. Copyright KU Leuven