Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) awarded a $464,646 Project Grant to Washington University on July 15, 2026, under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The research project, titled "Cortical Mechanisms Underlying Hearing Deficits in Noisy Backgrounds After Noise Trauma," addresses noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL), a major public health problem affecting over 48 million adults in the United States. The award funds fundamental neuroscience research investigating cellular and circuit-level mechanisms within the primary auditory cortex that contribute to impaired speech perception and sound discrimination in noisy environments following acoustic trauma.

The project deliverables comprise three coordinated research aims utilizing longitudinal in vivo two-photon calcium imaging in awake mice models to characterize cortical responses of different neuronal cell types to auditory stimuli in noisy backgrounds. The research will establish links between specific neuronal activity patterns and behavioral sound detection performance, and employ chemogenetic manipulation techniques to determine how modulating activity in different interneuron subtypes influences both cortical dynamics and auditory perception. This foundational research seeks to identify neural plasticity mechanisms that could inform development of brain-based therapeutic strategies for NIHL, addressing the current absence of FDA-approved pharmacological treatments. The project is scheduled for completion by May 31, 2031.