- Home
- About veski
- veski board
- veski innovation fellows
- Timothy Scott
- Benjamin Marsland
- Pierluigi Mancarella
- Vihandha Wickramasinghe
- Jon Shah
- Roger Pocock
- Richard Sandberg
- Colby Zaph
- Kenneth Crozier
- Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Colette McKay
- Luke Connal
- Mark Dawson
- Cameron Simmons
- Tiffany Walsh
- Seth Masters
- Christopher McNeill
- Matthew Call
- Edwin van Leeuwen
- Mark Shackleton
- Ross Dickins
- Ygal Haupt
- Sarah Hosking
- Michael Cowley
- Alyssa Barry
- Gareth Forde
- Marcus Pandy
- Andrew Holmes
- veski fellows
- organisational structure
- veski annual review
- veski impacts
- veski standard
- veski pin
- Contact us
- veski foundation
- Fellowships
- Programs
- News & Events
- News
- Events
- Galleries
- Newsletters
- in conversation
- veski twitter
- veski family in the media
- veski's portraits of innovation
- A banquet of problems to be solved
- A novel approach
- A very special challenge
- At the crossroad of sport and science
- Engineering a better quality of life
- Everything at her fingertips
- Forward propulsion
- Going to the ends of the earth to cure melanoma
- His link to the past and bridge to the future
- Hitting the right note
- Holding up his side of the bargain
- Lighting the way to better child cancer outcomes
- Links and reconnections
- Mining his talent to make a difference
- Putting Melbourne's science on the global stage
- Ready, set, go: the future of locomotion
- Setting his own path
- Springboarding into a slam-dunk for science
- The lens of experience
- Where dreams are made
- veski videos
- People
- veski board
- veski innovation fellows
- Timothy Scott
- Benjamin Marsland
- Pierluigi Mancarella
- Vihandha Wickramasinghe
- Jon Shah
- Roger Pocock
- Richard Sandberg
- Colby Zaph
- Kenneth Crozier
- Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Colette McKay
- Luke Connal
- Mark Dawson
- Cameron Simmons
- Tiffany Walsh
- Seth Masters
- Christopher McNeill
- Matthew Call
- Edwin van Leeuwen
- Mark Shackleton
- Ross Dickins
- Ygal Haupt
- Sarah Hosking
- Michael Cowley
- Alyssa Barry
- Gareth Forde
- Marcus Pandy
- Andrew Holmes
- Victoria Prize recipients
- Victoria Fellows
- veski sustainable agriculture fellows
- veski inspiring women fellows
- veski connection
- PAHMR recipients
Australian Researchers Develop New Brain Mapping Method to Assess Hearing Status in Infants
Researchers at the BABILab, part of the Bionics Institute in Melbourne, are mapping the brains of babies to determine whether or not hearing aids or cochlear implants are helping to develop language centers in the brain. Sensors placed in skullcaps worn by babies engaged in auditory and language tasks provide a unique way to evaluate brain activity in young children.
The scans obtained can then be compared to those from infants with normal hearing. Data from the scans can help dictate whether or not adjustment of amplification is required.
Current hearing tests of children, such as otoacoustic emissions (OAE) and auditory brainstem response (ABR), are an “approximate best guess” said Professor Colette McKay, head of translational hearing research at the institute.
“When a baby is born, their brain is ready to develop all the structures that support language development and speech perception and production. You need to have the auditory input in order to develop that structure and make it work. The earlier you intervene and give them sound, the better outcome for their whole quality of life.” –Prof. Colette McKay
Scanning Brain for Hearing Loss
To measure the brain’s response to sound, researchers at BABILab are using functional near-infra-red spectroscopy (fNIRS). This method, a light-based technology, was chosen over EEG due to concerns the EEG could receive electrical interference from a cochlear implant system.
The fNIRS measures oxygenated blood, correlating with various brain regions that become activated when certain sounds are heard or understood by the child.
The tests will allow researchers to look across various networks of the brain that are contributing to language development.
“These language areas in the brain should be highly connected. If they’re not, we could be able to target them with some sort of speech and language therapy. Or if a child was wearing a hearing aid and their language wasn’t developing, it could be a sign they should try a cochlear implant instead.”
Professor McKay and her team are in the process of developing a purpose-built fNIRS machine which, if their proof-of-concept trial is successful, they are hopefully could one day be used at other hearing centers.
Source: Hearing Health & Technology Matters / Bionics Institute / Herald Sun
https://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearingnewswatch/2017/baby-brain-scans-hearing-loss-hearing-aids-cochlear-implants-0911/
veski connection members in the news
Apr 2020 | Royal Society
Prof Jane Visavader, 2018 Victoria Prize for Science & Innovation recipient, elected to the Royal Societyin 2020
“The real benefit of increasing fabrication rates is the transition from prototyping, making one offs, to actually going into production.”
Assoc Prof Timothy Scott
Nov 2019 | Bionics Institute
Dr Thushara Perera, 2016 Victoria Fellow, received the prestigious AMP Foundation’s Tomorrow Fund
Tweets from @veskiorg
Tweets by @veskiorg