Development of objective measures for multisensory effects on hearing

Paired sound and electrical stimulation can alter how the brain encodes sounds and the perception of sounds, as shown in emerging evidence from animal studies. The aim of this study is to develop measures for paired stimulation that can be used reliably. These measures assess the following aspects of hearing: basic hearing sensitivity and cochlear health, perception of loudness and pitch, and perception of speech and music/complex sounds. This will lead to a greater understanding in the hearing science community about how multisensory stimulation can alter activity in the auditory system and sound perception, which may lead to new techniques for improving hearing disorders.