APC forms part of the Sensory Communication Group in MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics. We study many aspects of hearing, ranging from how the ear processes sound to how the brain interprets the signals it receives from the ear. Most of our work involves behavioral (or psychoacoustic) studies using people with normal or impaired hearing.

To set the scene, consider a situation in which you are holding a conversation in a bar. Music is playing in the background and several other conversations are taking place around you. What reaches your ears is a mix of all these different sources, combined with sound reflections from the walls, tables and floors. Somehow, from this confusing sound soup the auditory system is able to segregate the different sources and pick out the relevant information. How do we do it?

The way we solve the so-called “cocktail party problem” is still not fully understood, and there are currently no artificial systems that perform anywhere near as well as humans in segregating and identifying sound sources. Improving our understanding of how hearing works has several practical benefits. For example, if we understand how sounds are processed in the normal auditory system, we will be a in better position to design hearing aids and cochlear implants that improve the lives of those with hearing difficulties. Also, as sound perception and segregation is an important part of speech communication, automatic speech recognition systems should benefit greatly from improved “front ends” that process the incoming signals in a way to minimize interfering sounds. Solving the cocktail party problem for automatic systems could revolutionize the way we interact with computers, cars, and many other devices.

The study of sensory systems such as hearing is inherently multi-disciplinary. People join our group with backgrounds in electrical engineering, cognitive psychology, computer science, audiology, biology, and music. Most of the graduate students are enrolled in the Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology Program, which forms part of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.