Staff profiles

Learning, Memory and Cognition (LMC) Research Group

Deb's research and consultancy interests include:

• the interplay between perceptual, cognitive and emotional processing in tinnitus
• the neurophysiological basis of tinnitus
• evidence-based treatments for tinnitus
• Functional MRI or functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) investigations of cortical reorganisation after hearing loss
• fMRI measures of pitch coding in the human central auditory system
• auditory selective attention.

Deb’s current research is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Deb co-ordinates a translational research programme in tinnitus at the National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing.

Currently, Deb’s major external collaborators are:

• Dr Phillip Gander, National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing, Nottingham
• Professor Chris Plack, Dr Kevin Munro, Division of Human Communication and Deafness, University of Manchester
• Dr Suzanne Purdy, Department of Psychology, University of Auckland
• Professor Alan Palmer, Dr Peyman Adjamian, Dr Magda Sereda, MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Nottingham
• Professor Richard Bowtell, Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham.

• 2008 NIHR 2008-2012 infrastructure grant awarded to Nottingham University NHS Hospitals Trust: £4,000,000
• 2008 Sub-contract with Dr Bill Davies, University of Salford to conduct fMRI study as part of EPSRC Positive Soundscapes project: £35,000
• 2006 Philips Medical Systems sponsorship for The Auditory Cortex conference (Hall, co-applicant): £15,000
• 2006 RNID Knowledge Transfer grant. The search for a pitch centre in human auditory cortex. DA Hall and CJ Plack: £1,200
• 2006 Deafness Research UK Vacation scholarship. Attending to spatial and non-spatial sound features. DJK Barrett and DA Hall: £1,200
• 2005 RNID Knowledge Transfer grant. A systematic exploration of pitch representations in human auditory cortex. DA Hall and CJ Plack: £1,200
• 2004 MRC/EPSRC 5-year programme grant, 7 T MR scanning facility at University of Nottingham (Hall, co-applicant): £1,800,000
• 2004 MRC intramural programme 2004-2009 The Auditory Brain (Hall, co-applicant): £15,000,000 including a specific contribution to the 3 T MR scanning facility of £500,000
• 2004 Defeating Deafness Vacation scholarship. Auditory cortical representations of frequency and pitch. DA Hall: £1200
• 2003 SRIF2 award, 3 T MR scanning facility. University of Nottingham (Hall, co-applicant): £1,068,750
• 2001 Wellcome Trust conference sponsorship. "Relationships between human auditory cortical structure and function". DA Hall and IS Johnsrude: £2,000
• 2000 Experimental Psychology Society scholarship for overseas study visit. DA Hall: £1,000

In 2008, Deb was appointed a Special Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham in recognition of her long-standing collaborative research activity.

Board membership:

• 2007- Editorial Board, Hearing Research
• 2007- Advisory board for the Sage Encyclopaedia of Perception (Editor-in-chief, B. Goldstein)
• 2004- Professional Advisory Committee, British Tinnitus Association.

External examiner:

• 2007-2010 External examiner, MRes Psychological Research Methods, School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University.
• 2006-2010 External examiner, MSc in Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology and Centre for Signal Processing in Neuroimaging and Systems Neuroscience, University of Sheffield.

Visiting research fellowships:

• 2007 Department of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham.
• 2004 Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.
• 2001 Department of Otolaryngology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston, USA.

Reviewing

Deb is a regular reviewer for many specialist journals on neuroimaging (Human Brain Mapping, NeuroImage, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience), neuroscience (Brain, Brain Topography, Cerebral Cortex, European Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychologia) and auditory science (Hearing Research, International Journal of Audiology, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research).

Deb has also reviewed grant applications for the following funding bodies: Action Medical Research, Medical Research Council (MRC), Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), Swedish Research Council.

Deb is interested in supervising projects on perceptual processing (especially auditory, visual, and cross-modal perception). Other project ideas to test hypotheses about the role of selective attention in perception (including spatial attention) are also welcome.

Past student projects include behavioural studies of pitch processing and of auditory spatial attention. In the recent past, Deb has also supervised postgraduate projects on speechreading (individual differences and the influence of regional accent on speechreading ability) and in the role of emotional valence in perceiving naturalistic sounds. These topics are highly amenable to investigation at the undergraduate level.