Department of Rehabilitation for Sensory Functions

Research Topics

• Stuttering: pathphysiology, evaluation, treatment
• Tinnitus: pathophysiology, treatment
• Hearing impairment: physiology, pathology, treatment, compensation
• Cochlear implant: evaluation, (re)habilitation, prosody
• Language: development and its disorders, learning, evaluation, treatment, training
• Brain Computer Interface (BCI) for persons with severe disabilities
• Navigation by hearing for the blind

Subtopics

• Sound localization
• Functional lateralization of the brain in processing of auditory events
• Learning language and its disorders
• Prosodic aspects of language and the brain
• Voice and its disorders
• Hearing aid, cochlear implant
• Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), Sound-Cognitive Therapy
• Laser effect on the nervous system and tinnitus
• Brain mechanisms for individual identification by hearing voice

Research methods

• Functional brain mapping with near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) of hemoglobin
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• Electrophysiology and psychoacoustics
• Electroencepharlogram (EEG)
• Infrared laser
• Neuron culture and in vitro calcium imaging
• Magnetoencephalography (MEG) using multi-channel SQUID magneto-gradiometers
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Hearing aid using ultrasound

Society for Neuroscinece, Japan Neuroscience Society, Acoustical Society of Japan (ASJ), Acoustical Society of America (ASA), Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Society of Japan, Japan Audiological Society, The Japan Society of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO), International Fluency Association (IFA), Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), Physiological Society of Japan, ENTIS-J (Ear-Nose-Throat Informatics Society, JAPAN), Japan Ethological Society