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T35 Research Traineeships at VanderbiltUniversity – 2022The NIH-NIDCD funded T35 Research Traineeship Program is designed specifically for AuDstudents. Vanderbilt University is currently in its 14th year of providing T35 ResearchTraineeships. As you prepare for a career in Audiology, you can learn about research and workalongside well-known established researchers in a full-time, hands-on setting.Vanderbilt University Medical CenterVanderbilt Bill Wilkerson CenterDepartment of Hearing and Speech SciencesNashville, Tennessee“I can write without hesitation or reservation that the T35traineeship served as the single most influential experiencein determining my future career path as a translationalhearing scientist. The T35 traineeship served as my firstexposure to full-time translational research, immersing mein the research process from study design to finalpresentation. The impact of this experience secured myinterest in a research career and my belief in the importanceof science. I will always be grateful to the NIDCD forproviding me the opportunity to complete the T35traineeship that so positively influenced my career.”--- Former T35 TraineeOverview of the Program: Vanderbilt University Department of Hearing andSpeech Sciences, with funding from a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)National Institute on Deafness of Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), isrequesting applications from AuD students for 3-month, full-time (40 hours per week),basic or translational research traineeships that focus on various topics in audiology andhearing/vestibular sciences. Each AuD student trainee will be involved in a specificresearch project, actively participating in a hands-on manner in a research laboratorycurrently conducting research related to audiology/hearing science. Investigators,laboratories, and brief descriptions of areas of research are provided below.Students will be matched with a mentor according to the students' interests and mentoravailability. In addition, each AuD trainee will participate in discussions on responsibleconduct in research, participate in a specifically designed T35 seminar series presentedby many of the T35 preceptors, attend colloquia and journal groups, attend campuswide activities of interest as part of their training experience, and will have opportunitiesto present their work.This is an excellent opportunity for AuD students to obtain significant exposure toresearch in an active laboratory conducting research related to clinical and experimentalaudiology.Eligibility: This program is for students enrolled in AuD programs. Students participatefull time for 3 consecutive months. The preferred time period is from mid-May throughmid-August. The trainee must also be a U.S. citizen or must have permanent residencystatus. Students on J or F training Visas are not eligible for NIH training support. NIH
also restricts traineeships to students in AuD programs, who are not enrolled in PhD orAuD/PhD programs.Resources: In addition to the specific mentor with whom each AuD student will work,trainees will have access to other faculty and researchers for formal and informaldiscussions. A full range of technical and computer support will be provided during the3-month training period.Stipend: Each student will receive a stipend (based on the NIH published pre-doctoralstipend levels) for each of the three months that they participate in the program. Costsassociated with research (for example, subject fees) are supported by the T35 grant,grants held by faculty, or other sources. In addition, a travel stipend provides supportfor T35 trainees to present their research at the annual meeting of the AmericanAuditory Society.About Nashville: Vanderbilt’s hometown of Nashville is a vibrant, engaging city knownproudly as "Music City, USA." Located near downtown, the University’s students,faculty, staff, and visitors frequently cite Nashville as one of the perks of Vanderbilt.Nashville is a metropolitan place that proudly exudes all of the charm and hospitalityone expects from a Southern capital and was named America’s friendliest city for threeyears in a row. Nashville typically enjoys a mild and pleasant climate. Major industriesinclude tourism, music production, entertainment, printing and publishing, technologymanufacturing, higher education, finance, insurance, automobile production and healthcare ssentials.phpApplication Process: Interested AuD students should contact Linda J. Hood, PhD, forinformation and application materials at [email protected]: Completed applications should be received by January 15, 2022 andselections will be made by February 1, 2022. We anticipate that the typical traineeshipperiod will be from approximately May 15, 2022 to August 15, 2022. Traineeships areopen to students in all AuD programs.Additional Information: Vanderbilt former T35 trainees, students and others will beavailable to assist selected trainees who are not in the Nashville area in locatinghousing.Traineeships are awarded each year on a competitive basis.
Vanderbilt UniversityResearch Opportunities and PreceptorsRene Gifford, Ph.D. – Cochlear Implant ResearchResearch studies are designed to describe basic underlying mechanisms driving benefit fromcombined electric and acoustic hearing to better deliver and integrate information from two verydistinctive modalities. Current projects involve basic auditory perception, static and dynamicspatial hearing abilities, and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to describe theeffects of combined electric and acoustic stimulation on speech understanding and soundquality. Trainees could be involved in research projects including speech perception,localization, and psychophysical evaluation of spectral and/or temporal processing with cochlearimplant recipients.Troy Hackett Ph.D. – Central Auditory System Structure and FunctionResearch focuses on the neurochemical organization of central auditory structures and howthese areas are interconnected. Studies involve identifying circuits using neuroanatomicaltracers, mapping the locations of labeled cells and terminals, and determining the chemicalarchitecture of these circuits using methods to identify proteins, enzymes, and genes inneurons. Mice, nonhuman primates, and humans are the model systems in which this researchis conducted. Trainees who participate would learn histological and immunohistochemicalprocedures required to stain brain tissue, plot the locations of cells labeled by the tracerinjections using a microscope, and document cell labeling using computerized software anddigital photomicroscopy.Linda Hood, Ph.D. – Physiology of Peripheral and Central AuditorySystemsResearch focuses on physiology of the auditory system at middle ear, cochlear, peripheralneural, subcortical, and cortical levels. Studies include normal and disordered auditory systemsincluding assays of afferent and efferent system function in participants from pre-term infancythrough older adults. Studies also focus on patients with auditory neuropathy/dys-synchronyand genetic mutations related to hearing loss. Trainees could be involved in evaluating aspectsof auditory neuropathy/dys-synchrony, efferent system function, and objective methods ofevaluating infants and children and adults at cochlear, brainstem, and cortical levels.Ben Hornsby, Ph.D. – Impact of Hearing Loss on Communication,Effort, and FatigueResearch focuses on identifying and understanding mechanisms responsible for deficits inspeech understanding associated with hearing loss and how they relate to individual variabilityin the psychosocial impact of hearing loss and benefit from rehabilitation. Studies also focus onrelationships between hearing loss-related communication difficulties, mental effort, and fatigue.Trainees could be involved in studies of external factors affecting effort and fatigue,contributions of internal factors in children and adults with hearing loss, and effects ofreverberation and SNR on amplified speech information.Gary Jacobson, Ph.D. – Vestibular Function Across the LifespanResearch focuses on topics in auditory and vestibular clinical neurophysiology with most intranslational research focusing on measuring changes in vestibular function and balance at bothends of the age continuum. Projects measure the vestibuloocular reflex in young children,
changes in sonomotor responses (i.e., VEMP) in young and elder adults, and studies todetermine congruency of perceptions of dizziness-related disability and handicap. Traineescould be involved in research studies of characteristics in normal subjects or in various patientpopulations using a full range of assessment and management approaches.Alexandra Key, Ph.D. – Psychophysiology of Sensory and CognitiveFunctionDr. Key’s research focuses on psychophysiological indices (EEG/ERP) of sensory and cognitiveprocesses, their use for understanding mechanisms of deficits in intellectual and developmentaldisabilities, and for documenting treatment effects. A related line of research aims to identifypsychophysiological markers of risk for adverse developmental outcomes and concentrates onthe development of novel brain-based assessments for evaluating sensory and/or cognitivefunctions without the need for overt behavioral responses. Trainees could be involved instudies of the characteristics of speech processing and discrimination in various pediatricpopulations. Dr. Key’s lab currently collaborates with several of the preceptors and trainees canparticipate in these studies with Dr. Key and other preceptors.Erin Picou, Ph.D. – Listening Effort and Emotion PerceptionResearch focuses on hearing aid use for adults and school-aged children, with specific focuseson listening effort and emotion perception in realistic environments. Trainees could be involvedwith studies using subjective and behavioral approaches to measuring effort and affect inlaboratory or field settings with a range of assistive hearing technologies. Participants couldinclude adults or children with normal hearing or with hearing loss.Ram Ramachandran, Ph.D. – Auditory Perception in ComplexEnvironments in PrimatesResearch focuses on auditory perception in normal and hearing-impaired subjects, the neuronalencoding of the sounds driving the percept in these subjects during behavioral performance,and the relationship between the encoding of sounds by the neurons and the perception of thesubjects. Our studies use the nonhuman primate animal model with interest in perception incomplex, realistic environments, and the perception of complex stimuli. Trainees could beinvolved in behavioral or neurophysiological measurements aimed at understanding thespectral, temporal, spatial or attentional/cognitive mechanisms underlying perception.Todd Ricketts, Ph.D. – Optimization of AmplificationResearch projects focus on candidacy and benefits for bilateral beamformers in listeners withhearing aids, development of clinical optimization of microphone-based technologies in childrenand adults, development of television and movie listening tests, and the effects of hearing lossand hearing aid processing on emotional response to sounds and on listening effort. Traineeprojects could include studies of microphone technologies and emotional response to sound inpersons with hearing loss.Richard Roberts, Ph.D. – Vestibular Assessment and ManagementResearch projects focus on improving assessment and management of vestibular disorders.Long-term goals are to reduce the impact of dizziness and imbalance on health-related qualityof life, as well as reduce associated costs. Short term goals are to refine ways to identifyvestibular migraine, improve treatment of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), andincorporate lifestyle changes to improve vestibular migraine.Trainee projects could include efficacy of a repositioning chair in treatment of BPPV, use of
vestibular evoked myogenic potentials as a biomarker for vestibular migraine in patients withdifferent types of primary headache, studies of seasonality of various vestibular disorders, andeffects of lifestyle modifications on symptoms of vestibular migraine.Anne Marie Tharpe, Ph.D. – Auditory DevelopmentStudies include sleep studies in adults and preschool children who have hearing loss, and theimpact of hearing technology on communication within the home environment as measuredusing LENA technology. Trainees could be involved in sleep studies, home use of FMtechnology in children with hearing loss, and assessment of visual attention tasks in earlyintervention.Mark Wallace, Ph.D. – Brain Bases of Multisensory ProcessingResearch focuses on integration of auditory, visual, and somatosensory information. Two areasof study are the development and plasticity of multisensory brain circuits, and how deficitscontribute to learning and reading disabilities. Trainee projects could involve learning aboutfunctional neuroimaging approaches, how visual cues impact speech understanding, and visualand somatosensory influences on auditory cortical processing.For more information and application materials, please contact:Linda J. Hood, Ph.D.Email: [email protected] University Medical Center1215 21st Avenue South, MCE-South, Rm 8310Nashville, TN 37232
Vanderbilt University is currently in its 14th year of providing T35 Research . in the research process from study design to final presentation. The impact of this experience secured my . Studies include sleep studies in adu
