Speech processing in Oceania

I am just back from a weeklong trip to Australia and New Zealand, which gave me a chance to talk about speech research on the other side of the world.

In Australia, I spoke at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders--Kanazawa Institute of Technology MEG Workshop hosted by Macquarie University (home of the Australian Hearing Hub) in Sydney. This workshop paid tribute to Hisashi Kado, who played an enormously important role in developing and installing MEG machines around the world. It was fascinating and moving to hear stories about his leadership and vision that continue to influence so many researchers.

In New Zealand, I spoke to the New Zealand Institute for Langugage, Brain and Behaviour at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch about cognitive challenges associated with understanding acoustically-degraded speech, and some of the brain networks associated with this processing.

So, a good trip, and—Tim Tams for the lab!

#snlmtg17photo contest winners!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the unofficial photo contest at the Society for the Neurobiology of Language conference! There were a lot of great entries but I've managed to select some winners.

Grand prize

The top prize goes to Ethan Weed for this beautiful picture of a brain coral. This ticks all the boxes: a beautiful picture, from a memorable reception, and...BRAINS (even if they're coral)!

Brain coral mandala #snlmtg17 #snlmtg17photo pic.twitter.com/U9WAAb1Gbh

— Ethan Weed (@ethanweed) November 9, 2017

Runners up

Cetacean cognition sufficiently advanced for co-author credit at SNL #snlmtg17photo pic.twitter.com/NhCoACAtAG

— bob slevc (@bobsthinktank) November 8, 2017

First day at snl ... always fun ... #snlmtg17 #snlmtg17photo pic.twitter.com/XWCX7jUGV4

— benjamin gagl (@GaglBenjamin) November 8, 2017

Good morning #snlmtg17! In case you've forgotten, this is what the sun looks like. #snlmtg17photo #baltimoreharbor pic.twitter.com/vbknZgG1Pr

— Liina Pylkkanen (@liinapy) November 10, 2017

Conference photo contest! #snlmtg17photo

Going to the annual meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language in Baltimore? Get ready for the first ever conference photo contest! Show off your artistic skill, sense of humor, and creativity while at the conference.

Rules

1. Enter by posting a photo on twitter with the hashtag #snlmtg17photo between 9am (Eastern Time) Tuesday, November 7th and Noon on Friday November 10th, 2017.
2. The photo must be taken while attending the Society for the Neurobiology of Language meeting (to keep it fun) but can be from any location (including travel to or from Baltimore).
3. You can enter as many times as you would like.
4. There are no restrictions on filters, collages, stickers, or any other manipulation to the photo.
5. Judging will be entirely subjective and done by me (@jpeelle) although I may ask for some unofficial input from a secret panel of helper judges. Members of my lab are ineligible for prizes (but can still post photos).

Prizes

Let's be honest—the main prize is bragging rights and the admiration of your friends when I announce it on Twitter. The grand prize will also include a certificate and some small token of appreciation.

Disclaimer

This is just for fun and completely unofficial and unendorsed by the society. Please don't do anything stupid or dangerous or inappropriate to get a cool photograph.

#snlmtg17photo Tweets

Auditory Brainstem Implant Think Tank

I'm off to New York for a Think Tank on auditory brainstem implants (ABIs), sponsored by Cochlear. They've brought together a group of surgeons, researchers, and clinicians interested in auditory processing and rehabilitation, with a goal of improving outcomes for patients who receive ABIs. I'm looking forward to learning a lot about ABIs, and hopefully helping to generate some useful ideas for the future!

October is conference season!

I'm still recovering from back-to-back conferences last week. First was the Aging and Speech Communication conference at Indiana University. Held every other year this is a really nice conference looking at different facets of communication in aging, including challenges related to hearing loss. Our lab had two posters (one presented by me, another presented by Chad Rogers), and some collaborative work with Kristin Van Engen was also presented (by Kristin).

After a brief stop back in St. Louis to teach a class I was off to Chicago for the Society for the Neurobiology of Language (SNL). SNL is one of my favorite meetings and this year was no exception. I was fortunate to be invited to give a talk as part of a symposium on language and aging, along with Naftali Raz, Lorraine Tyler, and Pascale Tremblay. I presented some brand new data we have been collecting at Penn (which will hopefully make an appearance in a future post).

I'm done with conference travel for a while, so I'll have time to focus on actually getting things done in the lab!

Brain and Mind Symposium in Finland

I'm in Finland where I've given a talk at the Brain and Mind Symposium, organized by the Doctoral Program of Brain and Mind of Aalto University and the University of Helsinki. I spoke about some new data we've been collecting at Penn that I'm excited about - more on that over the coming months. Overall a good trip so far, and I hope I can make it back before too long.