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Director: James C. Saunders, PhD

The Hearing Sciences Center is a multidisciplinary center developed by the Department to integrate the research activities of a number of scientists and laboratories on the Penn Campus working in the area of hearing research. The keystone of the Center is the Auditory Research Laboratory, located in Departmental research space in the John Morgan Building, in the heart of the biomedical and neuroscience research sectors of the School of Medicine. The Hearing Sciences Center is under the direction of James C. Saunders Ph.D. who has received the University's highest award for his teaching in research methodology and in auditory neurobiology.

Research opportunities in the Auditory Research Laboratory are organized within three primary areas. These are: a) hair cell micro mechanics, b) hair cell regeneration, and c) signal processing at the auditory cortex. The hair cell studies use isolated hair cells kept alive in culture medium. The hair bundles are stimulated at high frequencies with a water microjet and are observed in slow motion using stroboscopically illuminated video microscopy. Current studies include the relation between mechanical input and the receptor potential response of the cell, and the effects of overstimulation on the mechanical response of the sensory hairs. Patch clamping is also used to measure the hair cell receptor currents during hair bundle stimulation. These currents are being examined in overstimulated hair cells. Hair-cell regeneration is studied in young chicks exposed to intense sound. These studies are designed to explain the mechanisms of hair cell loss and replacement in the chick cochlea. Discharge patterns in cochlear nerve units are also examined to describe the functional loss and recovery following acoustic trauma. The auditory cortex experiments are currently examining cellular discharges to computer generated moving sounds.

Other research opportunities in the Hearing Sciences Center include the Department's Developmental Auditory Biology laboratory. Research is underway to better understand the cellular mechanics underlying the development of hearing in mammals. The development of neural pathways between the ear and brain are being examined. An additional very interesting opportunity exists within the field of molecular biology to study the functioning of sound damaged, and regenerating hair cells. Co-operative research is currently being initiated between the Auditory Research Laboratory and several other laboratories in the Hearing Sciences Center to evaluate the molecular biology of the isolated hair cell in different phases of activity.