Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) awarded a $188,421 Project Grant to the University of Wisconsin-Madison on May 1, 2026, under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The three-year project, concluding April 30, 2029, develops novel psychoacoustic and non-invasive electrophysiological assessment tools to evaluate how individuals process speech fine structure (FS)—frequency modulation cues essential for understanding speech in noisy environments. The research addresses a critical gap in clinical tools by creating speech-based tests applicable to both individuals with typical hearing and those with hearing loss, utilizing multichannel electroencephalography (EEG) and ecologically valid speech stimuli to produce real-world generalizable findings.

The project deliverables include two primary research aims: first, parametric psychoacoustic assessments of speech fine structure importance across varying noise types and levels, and second, quantification of neural signatures of speech fine structure processing through evaluation of speech envelope encoding on carriers with differing amounts of fine structure information. These deliverables are designed to characterize inter-individual differences in fine structure processing and provide objective tools for evaluating neural coding deficits, with potential applications for remediating fine structure processing across diverse populations and hearing loss conditions.