Auditory Processing Dysfunction Associated with Mild, Traumatic Brain Injury and Blast Exposure

Recorded March 25, 2015 AudiologyNOW! 2015

Duration: 90 minutes

Presenter: Frederick Gallun, PhD

CEUs: .15

Who Should Attend: Clinicians and researchers interested in learning about the growing need for assessment of central auditory dysfunction in adults with brain injury.

Instructional Level: Intermediate
Program Focus: Knowledge

Learner Outcomes: Upon completion, each participant in the eAudiology Web seminar will be able to:

1. Describe the central auditory processing pathways
2. Discuss ways in which central auditory dysfunction from blast exposure can impair communication
3. Describe a range of diagnostic tests sensitive to central auditory dysfunction in a blast-exposed population

Description: Current and former members of the U.S. armed services who were exposed to high-intensity explosions in the line of duty have greater complaints of hearing difficulties than would be expected for patients of their age and (relatively normal) peripheral hearing. Our research is identifying the types of diagnostic tests that can uncover deficits in auditory processing in these patients. Recent and ongoing research results will be reviewed that show how behavioral and electrophysiological measures can be used to validate the difficulties these injured Veterans are experiencing.

Frederick J. Gallun, PhD is a researcher at the National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, and Associate Professor in Otolaryngology and the Neuroscience Graduate Program at Oregon Health and Science University. He received his degree in Cognitive Psychology from UC Berkeley and completed an NIH-funded postdoctoral fellowship in Communication Disorders at Boston University. His laboratory and research collaborations are funded by three NIH grants and three VA Merit Awards. The work of Gallun and his collaborators focuses on the impacts of aging, hearing loss, and brain injury on the ability to parse the auditory scene. Particular areas of expertise include binaural and spatial hearing, memory and attention, and the encoding and processing of temporal information by the auditory system.