Fan-Gang ZengProfessor, Otolaryngology Research Director, Hearing and Speech Research Laboratory |
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Research Interests |
Cochlear Implant, Auditory Neuroscience, Psychophysics, Speech Perception, Auditory Neuropathy | |
| URL | www.ucihs.uci.edu/hesp/research.html | |
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Academic Distinctions |
Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare (Marquis since 1996); Who’s Who in Science and Engineering (Marquism since 1998) |
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Research Abstract |
Dr. Zeng's research focuses on the encoding of sensory information in normal and impaired auditory systems. We try to understand how simple attributes of sounds, such as loudness and pitch, as well as how complex sounds, such as speech and music, are encoded in the peripheral and central auditory systems. We address these questions by integrating information obtained from normal-hearing listeners, hearing-impaired listeners, and cochlear-implant listeners whose hearing is partially restored by electric stimulation of the auditory nerve. Our recent work has demonstrated that investigating the performance of listeners with impaired hearing can greatly deepen our understanding of intensity coding (Zeng and Shannon, 1994; Zeng and Shannon, 1995; Zeng, Galvin, and Zhang, 1998) and speech recognition (Shannon et al., 1995; Zeng and Galvin, 1999). We certainly hope that our better understanding of the auditory information encoding can lead us to develop more efficient and cost-effective hearing aids and cochlear implants for hearing-impaired people (Zhang and Zeng, 1997; Wilson et al., 1998). Dr. Zeng's current investigations involve three NIH-supported projects: (1) Intensity coding in acoustic and electric hearing; (2) Speech processor for auditory prostheses; and (3) Hearing deficits due to auditory neuropathy. Dr. Zeng's laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art signal processing software and hardware that allows precise generation, control, and presentation of acoustic stimuli including tones, noises, speech, and music sounds. Clinical and experimental programming interfaces are available for cochlear implant related research. Acoustic simulations of various degrees of hearing impairment, cochlear implants, and auditory neuropathy are also available for research purposes and for allowing a normally hearing listener to appreciate hearing loss. Patents: Low-Cost, Four-Channel Cochlear Implant. US Patent Number: 5,549,658, Issue Date: 8-27-1996. A Passive, Hermetically-Sealed Cochlear Implant. US Patent Number: 5,749,912, Issue Date: 5-12-1998. |
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| Publications | Zeng, F.-G., and Shannon, R.V. (1994). Loudness-coding mechanisms inferred from electric stimulation of the human auditory system. Science 264, 564-566. | |
| Shannon, R.V., Zeng, F.-G., Wygonski, J., Kamath, V., and Ekelid, M. (1995). Speech recognition with primarily temporal cues. Science 270, 303-304. | ||
| Wilson, B.S., Rebscher, S., Zeng, F.-G., Shannon, R.V., Loeb, G.E., Lawson, D.T., and Zerbi, M. (1998). Design for an inexpensive but effective cochlear implant. Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery 118, 235-241. | ||
| Zeng, F.-G., Oba, S., Garde,S., Sininger, Y., and Starr, A. (1999). Temporal and speech processing deficits in Auditory Neuropathy. NeuroReport 10(16), 3429-3435. | ||
| Zeng, F.-G., Fu, Q.-J., and Morse, R.P. (2000). Human hearing enhanced by noise. Brain Research 869(1-2), 251-255. | ||
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Professional Societies |
Association for Research in Otolaryngology Acoustical Society of America |
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| Graduate Programs |
Neurobiology |
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| Link to this profile | http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4560 | |
| Last updated | 08/20/2004 | |