Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory - Honours projects available in 2009
An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Physiology.
Associate Professor Simon Carlile directs a multi-disciplinary research group aimed at understanding the mechanisms by which the auditory system encodes sound direction and the perception of sound localisation. Sounds are generated in the free field and in so-called virtual auditory space (VAS). Research projects involve acoustics, neural coding, behavioural/psychophysical studies, computer simulations and digital signal processing. A major facility of the laboratory is a large anechoic chamber, equipped with one of the world's most advanced moving speaker assemblies. It is based on a high speed robotic arm rotating about a central axis, and designed to deliver sound signals positioned precisely in two-dimensional space.
- Human psychophysical studies examining the role of spectral cues produced by the outer ear and head in generating our percept of external auditory space, and the localisation and streaming of auditory objects within that space
Supervisor + contact details:
- Associate Professor Simon Carlile
In this approach bio-acoustical measurements of the filtering of the outer ear are used to generate and manipulate sounds in virtual space. Here, digital signal processing is combined with classical auditory psychophysics to study the perception of stationary and moving sound sources.
- Neural and bioacoustical studies of the mammalian auditory system (guinea pig and ferret)
Supervisor + contact details:
- Associate Professor Simon Carlile
Neural and bioacoustical studies of the mammalian auditory system (guinea pig and ferret) are aimed at determining how the monaural and binaural spectral cues to a sounds location are encoded by the nervous system. Neurophysiological techniques involve conventional microelectrode recordings (single and multi-unit) from the midbrain and the analysis of neural responses to sound stimuli presented in the free-field and in VAS. The analysis of unit data includes newly developed spike-sorting and correlation procedures to improve da ta recovery, underlying a strong emphasis on digital processing and analytical techniques in the laboratory.
