News

The Acoustical Society of America featured one of Professor Laurel Carney’s papers as one of the most cited articles in The Journal of Acoustical Society of America from the January 2015-present. The article was titled "Updated parameters and expanded simulation options for a model of the auditory periphery.”

Abstract

A phenomenological model of the auditory periphery in cats was previously developed by Zilany and colleagues [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 126, 2390–2412 (2009)] to examine the detailed transformation of acoustic signals into the auditory-nerve representation. In this paper, a few issues arising from the responses of the previous version have been addressed. The parameters of the synapse model have been readjusted to better simulate reported physiological discharge rates at saturation for higher characteristic frequencies [Liberman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 63, 442–455 (1978)]. This modification also corrects the responses of higher-characteristic frequency (CF) model fibers to low-frequency tones that were erroneously much higher than the responses of low-CF model fibers in the previous version. In addition, an analytical method has been implemented to compute the mean discharge rate and variance from the model's synapse output that takes into account the effects of absolute refractoriness.

Join us in congratulating Laurel for being selected as one of 4 Professors of the year from a extraordinary field of 63 candidates.

Laurel Carney, professor of biomedical engineering, won in the Engineering field. Her research focuses on the complex network of auditory nerve fibers that transmit the inner ear’s electrical signals to the brain with the goal of better hearing aids.

Carney earned her M.S. and Ph.D degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University and professor of biomedical engineering at Syracuse University before joining the Rochester faulty in 2007. She serves as professor in three departments – biomedical engineering, neurobiology and anatomy, and electrical and computer engineering.

Past the auditory canal, through the eardrum and beyond the cochlea is where you will find the research of Laurel Carney, Ph.D., acclaimed professor of biomedical engineering. Carney’s research focuses on the complex network of auditory nerve fibers that transmit the inner ear’s electrical signals to the brain with the goal of better hearing aids. Her research combines neurophysiological and behavioral studies with computer modeling in an effort to develop hearing aids that make human speech louder and clearer. In June 2015, she earned the William and Christine Hartmann Prize in Auditory Neuroscience from the Acoustical Society of America. And on January 22, the University of Rochester formally installed her as the Marylou Ingram Professor in Biomedical Engineering.