Unveiling the Mysteries of Sound: Research at the Auditory Neuroscience Lab
Everyday hearing - understanding a sentence, recognizing a voice, or picking out the melody of a song - is a feat of biological engineering. Machine hearing systems are just beginning to catch up to their biological counterparts and still lag behind them in many respects. The long-term goal of the lab is to understand and model the neural computations that underlie human hearing, and to use these insights to improve machine systems and aid in the treatment of sensory deficits.
Under the leadership of Dr. Lars Rogenmoser, the Auditory Neuroscience Lab investigates the biopsychological mechanisms behind auditory (dys)functions, with a focus on music and language. Our research aims to improve hearing health and apply scientific discoveries to real-world challenges. We study the auditory system across the lifespan, investigating its connections to neuroplasticity and cognitive functions. A central focus of our work is understanding how hearing health influences the brain, through research involving diverse populations, including musicians and individuals with hearing disorders (e.g., tinnitus and hearing loss).
Diagram of the Human Ear
Decoding Acoustic Communication: A Systems-Level Approach
Research in the lab takes an integrative, systems-level approach to understanding the neural mechanisms that govern the sensory, perceptual, and cognitive processing of acoustic communication signals and real-world sounds. We want to know how such information constrains and biases acoustic pattern perception, attention, and memory mechanisms. We are interested in fundamental questions of stimulus coding and receptive field organization, the transformation of information across brain regions, and the role of network level activity in shaping the brain's responses to natural communication signals.
The lab uses a variety of behavioral techniques to examine the statistical organization of spectral and temporal song at multiple acoustic levels. Female mate-choice in songbirds provides an excellent context to study the specific neural mechanisms of decision processes involving natural stimuli. The lab has developed a novel procedure for assaying female song preference that permits extracellular electrophysiology in awake behaving songbirds. We are studying multiple populations of neurons in the songbird brain, in areas analogous to mammalian auditory cortex, whose responses are directly linked to behaviorally relevant variation among conspecific songs. Current studies in the lab investigate the neural mechanisms that give rise to these representations across the auditory forebrain.
Songbird vocalization study
Mapping Brain Responses to Sound
Our lab focuses on measuring human brain responses using functional MRI as well as intracranial recordings from patients undergoing electrode implantation as a part of their clinical care.
Key findings from recent publications include:
- Neurons in auditory cortex integrate information within a constrained and context-invariant temporal window. (Current Biology, 2025)
- Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time. (Nature Neuroscience, 2025)
- Dynamic modeling of EEG responses to natural speech reveals earlier processing of predictable words. (PLoS Computational Biology, 2025)
- Neurons in auditory cortex integrate information within constrained temporal windows that are invariant to the stimulus context and information rate. (bioRxiv, 2025)
Summary of Publications:
| Publication | Journal | Date | Key Finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neurons in auditory cortex integrate information within a constrained and context-invariant temporal window | Current Biology | Dec 04, 2025 | Temporal integration is context-invariant |
| Temporal integration in human auditory cortex is predominantly yoked to absolute time | Nature Neuroscience | Sep 18, 2025 | Temporal integration linked to absolute time |
| Dynamic modeling of EEG responses to natural speech reveals earlier processing of predictable words | PLoS Computational Biology | Apr 28, 2025 | Earlier processing of predictable words |
| Neurons in auditory cortex integrate information within constrained temporal windows that are invariant to the stimulus context and information rate | bioRxiv | Feb 14, 2025 | Temporal windows invariant to stimulus context |
TexAN Lab: Exploring Binaural Hearing and Spatial Listening
Members of the TexAN Lab recently traveled to the Acoustical Society of America and Association for Research in Otolaryngology conferences to present their research on binaural hearing. These presentations described methods for quickly assessing the brain’s ability to detect subtle timing differences between right and left ears. Members of the TexAN Lab recently traveled to the 181st Acoustical Society of America conference in Seattle to present two research projects on neural indices of spatial listening and bimodal hearing, respectively. Feb. Members of the TexAN Lab traveled to the 47th Association for Research in Otolaryngology Midwinter meeting in Anaheim, CA to present a research project.
The Auditory System
Lab Updates and Achievements
Tim Gentner is the PI of the lab. Can (Elaine) Xu earned her Ph.D. Can (Elaine) Xu has successfully defended her dissertation on "Simulated Bimodal Speech Perception in Noise for Native and Non-Native Speech". Congratulations to Dr. Fan-Yin Cheng graduated with her Ph.D. We are excited to announce that our Doctoral of Audiology student, Sarah Medina, will begin her externship next year. We are incredibly proud of Sarah’s accomplishments and look forward to supporting her continued success.