Faculty
Dr. Bryan E. Pfingst
Director, Auditory Prosthesis Perception and Psychophysics Laboratories
E-mail:
Phone: (734) 763-2292
Fax: (734) 764-0014
Accomplishments
- Publications
- Professor of Otolaryngology
- Adjunct Professor of Psychology
- Member Neuroscience Faculty
- Previous Chair, Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses
- Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1971
Hobbies
- Bicycling
- Ice Skating
- Cooking
- Sailing
Research Projects
The goal of our research is to understand and improve perception with cochlear implants. These implants are designed to functionally replace the deaf inner ear through patterned electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. They provide hearing to severely or profoundly deaf people who receive little or no benefit from conventional hearing aids. The objective of our research is to better understand how the auditory nervous system responds to electrical stimulation and thus to identify ways to improve the function of these auditory prostheses. Our research is done in human and animal subjects. Human subjects are selected from the population of deaf adults in the Ann Arbor area who are using cochlear implants and who volunteer to serve as subjects for hearing tests using various experimental configurations of the prosthesis. Studies are also done using people with normal hearing listening to acoustic simulations of auditory prostheses. Animal subjects (guinea pigs) are trained using positive reinforcement operant conditioning techniques to perform tasks that are used to measure their hearing with acoustic or electrical stimulation. We then determine how various parameters of electrical stimulation affect their hearing. Guinea pigs are also used to study the functional effects of postdeafening treatments of the ear that are intended to improve nerve survival patterns and increase the effectiveness of cochlear implants. Recordings from neurons in the auditory pathway in the guinea pigs, made in collaboration with the neurophysiology laboratories of Drs. Bledsoe and Middlebrooks, are used to better understand the neural codes that carry information about the electrical signal and to guide the design of better stimulation strategies.
Publications
- Pfingst BE, Xu L: Across-site threshold variation in cochlear implants: Relation to speech recognition. Audiol Neurootol, in press
- Pfingst BE, Xu L: Across-site variation in detection thresholds and maximum comfortable loudness levels for cochlear implants. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 5:11-24, 2004.
- Xu L, Pfingst BE: Relative importance of temporal envelope and fine structure in lexical-tone perception. J Acoust Soc Amer 114:3024-3027, 2003.
- Franck KH, Xu L, Pfingst BE: Effects of stimulus level on speech perception with cochlear prostheses. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 4:49-59, 2003.
- Xu L, Tsai Y, Pfingst BE: Features of stimulation affecting tonal-speech perception: Implications for cochlear prostheses. J Acoust Soc Am 112:247-258, 2002.
- Pfingst BE, Franck KH, Xu L, Bauer EM, Zwolan TA: Effects of electrode configuration and place of stimulation on speech perception with cochlear prostheses, J Assoc Res Otolaryngol, 2:87-103, 2001.
- Pfingst BE: Auditory Prostheses. In J K Chapin and KA Moxon (eds.), Neural Prostheses for Restoration of Sensory and Motor Function, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 3-43, 2000.
- Morris DJ, Pfingst BE: Effects of electrode configuration and stimulus level on rate and level discrimination with cochlear implants. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 1: 211-223, 2000.
- Miller AL, Morris DJ, Pfingst BE: Effects of time after deafening and implantation on guinea pig electrical detection thresholds. Hear Res, 144:175-186, 2000.
- Pfingst BE, Holloway LA, Zwolan TA, and Collins LM: Effects of stimulus level on electrode-place discrimination in human subjects with cochlear implants. Hear Res 134:105-115, 1999.
- Miller AL, Morris DJ, and Pfingst BE: Interactions between pulse separation and pulse polarity order in cochlear implants. Hear Res 109:21-33, 1997.
- Pfingst BE, Zwolan TA, and Holloway LA: Effects of stimulus configuration on psychophysical operating levels and on speech recognition with cochlear implants. Hear Res 112:247-260, 1997.
- Pfingst BE, Morris DJ, and Miller AL: Effects of electrode configuration on threshold functions for electrical stimulation of the cochlea. Hear Res 85:76-84, 1995.
- Pfingst BE, Holloway LA, Poopat N, Subramanya AR, Warren WF, and Zwolan TA: Effects of stimulus level on nonspectral frequency discrimination by human subjects. Hear Res 78:197-209, 1994.
- Moon AK, Zwolan TA, and Pfingst BE: Effects of phase duration on detection of electrical stimulation of the human cochlea. Hear Res 67:166-178, 1993.
- Pfingst BE: Comparison of spectral and nonspectral frequency difference limens for human and nonhuman primates. J Acoust Soc Am 93:2124-2129, 1993.
- Pfingst BE, DeHaan DR, and Holloway LA: Stimulus features affecting psychophysical detection thresholds for electrical stimulation of the cochlea. I: Phase duration and stimulus duration. J Acoust Soc Am 90:1857-1866, 1991.
