Research - Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Origins and application of OAEs i.e. otoacoustic emissions, sounds emitted from human (mammalian) ears. Current interest is primarily origins of OAEs, i.e. the biophysical processes occurring inside the inner ear, which as their byproduct, transmit signals to the outer ear measurable by sensitive microphones. Increasingly I am returning to my roots in basic physiological research to understand regulatory processes and how they affect hearing, the onset of hearing loss, vestibular manifestations, and OAEs. My position is that while very much hearing research is directed at molecular biological aspects, there is still much unfinished business on the biophysics, particularly as to how such a highly sensitive active system is regulated. Current specific interest is to determine to what extent in humans these regulatory aspects can be gleaned from the infrasonic components of OAE signals. The research projects have collaborators in Sydney, France and Sweden.