Project Grant R21DC024094

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes of Health, awarded the University of Massachusetts $203,125 under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173) on July 20, 2026.

The award funds research examining how the brain processes spatial hearing—the ability to locate and isolate sounds in noisy environments—from the brainstem through the cortex and across the human lifespan. The research addresses gaps in understanding the neural mechanisms underlying spatial release from masking, the phenomenon by which listeners better detect a relevant sound when it is spatially separated from interfering sounds. The first phase studies young healthy adults aged 18–22 using event-related potentials to measure auditory processing as participants detect speech targets presented concurrently with two-talker speech babble, under conditions in which targets are either spatially co-located with or separated from maskers. The analysis teases apart neural contributions to release from masking at early (energetic masking) and later (informational masking) processing stages. The second phase examines how spatial hearing processing changes across the lifespan and may be separately influenced by aging and hearing loss.

The University of Massachusetts, located in Hadley, Massachusetts, is the recipient. The period of performance runs through June 30, 2029. This is a Project Grant assistance type.