PhD defence by Miguel Temboury Gutiérrez

On Tuesday 2 July, Miguel Temboury Gutiérrez will defend his PhD thesis "Modeling human auditory evoked brain responses to complex sounds".

Time: 09:30

Place: Building 341, auditorium 21 & zoom: https://dtudk.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5EtcOusrT0sGdSRpXRqBJHbnJfhoeSReE1W

Please be aware that the PhD defense may be recorded - This will also be informed at the beginning of the PhD defense.

Supervisor: Professor Torsten Dau

Co-supervisor: Assistant Professor Gerard Encina-Llamas, Universitat Central de Catalunya

Assessment committee:
Associate Professor Bastian Epp, DTU Health Tech
Associate Professor Skyler Jennings, The University of Utah
Associate Professor Jérôme Bourien, University of Montpellier

Chairperson:
Senior Researcher Fiona Bríd Mulvey, DTU Health Tech

Abstract:
Our sense of hearing allows us to perceive and interpret complex acoustic signals. Damage to the inner ear may result in diverse forms of hearing deficits. While pure-tone audiometry is the standard hearing test today, it does not reflect all forms of damage in the inner ear and may not capture all hearing difficulties. On the other hand, electrophysiological brain responses to different sounds directly reveal abnormal processing resulting from specific damage to different cell populations in the cochlea. However, their interpretability is limited due to the complex nature of cochlear processing. The work presented here proposes the use of computational models of cochlear function to simulate brain responses to various acoustic stimuli combined with precise electrophysiological measures to enhance the clinical potential of these diagnostic tools. In summary, this thesis offers a quantitative approach to assess the influence of peripheral processing on brainstem responses, aiming to enhance the specificity of electrophysiological metrics.