University Division of Clinical Audiology
University Division of Clinical Audiology
Clinical audiology deals with the diagnosis and treatment of hearing disorders. The primary aim of diagnostics is to determine the type and degree of hearing loss. The therapy, in turn, is based on this diagnosis and is designed to achieve the best possible hearing performance under the given conditions so that people can once again participate in everyday life in a communicative manner.
Teaching
Teaching activities include the following topics:
- Peripheral and central aspects of hearing
- Diagnostics of hearing disorders
- Therapy of hearing impairments with hearing systems
- Neuroscientific methods (EEG, fNIRS, MRT, pupillometry)
The following courses are offered:
Winter semester 2024/2025:
Research and publications
Research at the Division of Clinical Audiology focusses on various aspects of the auditory system. Important focal points are
- Cortical plasticity in patients with a cochlear implant:
Sandmann, P., Plotz, K., Hauthal, N., de Vos, M., Schönfeld, R., & Debener, S. (2015). Rapid bilateral improvement in auditory cortex activity in postlingually deafened adults following cochlear implantation. Clinical Neurophysiology, 126(3), 594-607.
Sandmann, P., Dillier, N., Eichele, T., Meyer, M., Kegel, A., Pascual-Marqui, R. D., Marcar, V. L., Jäncke, L., & Debener, S. (2012). Visual activation of auditory cortex reflects maladaptive plasticity in cochlear implant users. Brain, 135, 555 - 568.
Sandmann, P., Eichele, T., Büchler, M., Debener, S., Jäncke, L., Dillier, N., Hugdahl, K., & Meyer, M. (2009). Evaluation of evoked potentials to dyadic tones after cochlear implantation. Brain, 132(7), 1967 - 1979.
- Objective evaluation of the treatment outcome in patients fitted with a hearing system:
Weglage, A., Müller, V., Layer, N., Abdel-Latif, K. H., Lang-Roth, R., Walger, M., & Sandmann, P. (2022). Side-of-implantation effect on functional asymmetry in the auditory cortex of single-sided deaf cochlear-implant users. Brain Topography, 35(4), 431-452.
Kessler, M., Schierholz, I., Mamach, M., Wilke, F., Hahne, A., Büchner, A., Geworski, L., Bengel, F., Sandmann, P.* & Berding, G.* (2020). Combined Brain-Perfusion SPECT and EEG measurements suggest distinct strategies for speech comprehension in CI users with higher and lower performance. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 14, 787
Sandmann, P., Kegel, A., Eichele, T., Dillier, N., Lai, W., Bendixen, A., Debener, S., Jäncke, L., & Meyer, M. (2010). Neurophysiological evidence of impaired musical sound perception in cochlear-implant users. Clinical Neurophysiology, 121(12), 2070 - 2082.
- Multisensory interaction and cognition in patients with cochlear implants:
Layer, N., Weglage, A., Müller, V., Meister, H., Lang-Roth, R., Walger, M., Murray, M. M., & Sandmann, P. (2022). Electrophysiological differences and similarities in audiovisual speech processing in CI users with unilateral and bilateral hearing loss. Current Research in Neurobiology, 3, 100059.
Layer, N., Weglage, A., Müller, V., Meister, H., Lang-Roth, R., Walger, M., Murray, M. M., & Sandmann, P. (2022). The timecourse of multisensory speech processing in unilaterally stimulated cochlear implant users revealed by ERPs. NeuroImage: Clinical, 34, 102982.
Radecke, J. O., Schierholz, I., Kral, A., Lenarz, T., Murray, M. M., & Sandmann, P. (2022). Distinct multisensory perceptual processes guide enhanced auditory recognition memory in older cochlear implant users. NeuroImage: Clinical, 33, 102942.
Schierholz, I., Finke, M., Kral, A., Büchner, A., Rach, S., Lenarz, T., Dengler, R., & Sandmann, P. (2017). Auditory and audio-visual processing in patients with cochlear, auditory brainstem, and auditory midbrain implants: An EEG study. Human Brain Mapping, 38(4), 2206-2225.
Schierholz, I., Finke, M., Schulte, S., Hauthal, N., Kantzke, C., Rach, S., Büchner, A., Dengler, R., & Sandmann, P. (2015). Enhanced audio-visual interactions in the auditory cortex of elderly cochlear-implant users. Hearing Research, 328, 133-147.
Finke, M., Büchner, A., Ruigendijk, E., Meyer, M., & Sandmann, P. (2016). On the relationship between auditory cognition and speech intelligibility in cochlear implant users: An ERP study. Neuropsychologia, 87, 169-181.
- Subcortical auditory information processing:
Beck, A. K.*, Sandmann, P.*, Dürschmid, S., Schwabe, K., Saryyeva, A., Krauss, J. K. (2020). Neuronal activation in the human centromedian-parafascicular complex predicts cortical responses to behaviourally significant auditory events. NeuroImage, 116583.
Beck, A. K., Lütjens, G., Schwabe, K., Dengler, R., Krauss, J. K., & Sandmann, P. (2018). Thalamic and basal ganglia regions are involved in attentional processing of behaviourally significant events: evidence from simultaneous depth and scalp EEG. Brain Structure and Function, 223(1), 461-474.
* = shared first/last authorship
