President and Chair: Sunil Puria

ARO was founded in 1973 and yet we have not had a Presidential Symposium dedicated to hearing aids. Hearing aids are the standard of care for most people withvsensory neural hearing loss. With over 20 million devices in annual global sales, this number is expected to grow significantly in the coming decade. As I am the Chair of the International Hearing-Aid Research Conference (IHCON), it is only fitting that we dedicate this year’s Presidential Symposium to hearing aids. We have an amazing set of six speakers with an arc spanning from its rich history to its future.

Speakers

• Dr. Mara Mills
• Dr. Brian CJ Moore
• Dr. Torsten Dau

President and Chair: Dr. Yuri Agrawal

This symposium focused on clinician-scientists who are professionally trained in both clinical practice and scientific research. Clinician-scientists occupy a unique position in the biomedical enterprise with their regular interactions with patients as well as their leadership in research. This position offers critical opportunities for translational impact with significant potential benefits to patients. This symposium reviews trends in the current clinician-scientist workforce in Otolaryngology and discusses the challenges faced by clinician-scientists across their career arc (from medical school to residency to early to mid-faculty years). It explores the role of ongoing and novel programs designed to support the clinician-scientist from the perspective of relevant stakeholders, including junior and senior clinician-scientists, the training program director, the basic science collaborator, the Department director, and the NIDCD director. The goal of the symposium is to articulate a comprehensive strategy to support and sustain the clinician-scientist workforce.

Speakers

• Aaron Remenschneider, M.D., Boston Children's Hospital
• Jennifer Stone, Ph.D., University of Washington, Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Resource Center
• Alan Cheng, M.D., Stanford University
• Marlan Hansen, M.D., UIHC
• Debara Tucci, M.D., M.S., M.B.A., National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders/NIH

President and Chair: Dr. Elizabeth Olson

This symposium is meant to convey the basic wonder of the ear and of how the ear and brain together provide our sense of hearing. Understanding the operation of the healthy ear and auditory brain is key to understanding how sound sensing can fail.

The session begins with a talk on the historical development of ideas about cochlear sensitivity by physicist Christopher Shera. Karl Grosh, an expert in the dynamic processing of the cochlea, will then review cochlear mechanics. Laurel Carney will discuss how cochlear dynamics shape neural
responses to sound, including speech. Raymond Goldsworthy will discuss how the history of cochlear implants has led to the modern device. Richard Einhorn, a composer with hearing loss, will discuss his experience with hearing loss, and share his knowledge of modern hearing aids and personal sound amplification systems. Finally, Debara Tucci will describe the global impact of hearing loss and efforts to improve accessibility.

Hearing is fundamental to communication. The impact of hearing loss, and therefore the impact of hearing remediation, is profound. This symposium is a whirlwind tour of that story -- from the history, through the basics, to what can and should and be done to address hearing health.

Symposium talks:

• Christopher Shera, Ph.D.
  • History of Auditory Science
• Karl Grosh, Pd.D.
  • Review of Cochlear Mechanics
• Laurel H. Carney, Ph.D.
  • The Relationship of Peripheral Nonlinearities to Initial Neural Processing, Especially of Speech
• Raymond Goldsworthy, Ph.D.
  • How Cochlear Implants Work
• Richard Einhorn, Ph.D.
  • PSAPS, OTC Hearing Aids, Hearing Apps Technology, New Bluetooth Specs for Hearing Aids, etc.
• Debara Tucci, Ph.D.
  • Global Impact of Hearing Loss, and Efforts to Improve Accessibility 

Session Abstract: In this panel, training directors will address the intentional steps they have taken to develop a successful mentoring program for their trainees. In addition to helping us understand what constitutes good mentoring, they will also discuss the important role that mentees play in contributing to the success of the mentoring relationship and the qualities and behaviors of effective mentees.

CHAIR:
John Oghalai, M.D.
University of Southern California

SPEAKERS:

Barbara Oakley, Ph.D.
Oakland University
Virtual: Learning How to Learn: Powerful Mental Tools to Help You Master Tough Subjects

Daniel Levitin, Ph.D.
Minerva University
Mentoring Graduate Students: Tales From the Trenches and New Evidence From Neuroplasticity Across the Lifespan

Joseph Kerschner, M.D.
Medical College of Wisconsin
Funds Flow To Support The Education Mission: A Dean’s Perspective

Lloyd Minor, M.D.
Stanford University School of Medicine
Mentoring the Budding Physician Scientist

Chris Manning, Ph.D.
University of Southern California
Recruiting and Mentoring Diverse Trainees

DISCUSSION LEADERS:
Linda von Hoene, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

Sabrina Soracco, Ph.D.
University of California, Berkeley

PANELISTS:.

Christopher Shera, Ph.D.
University of Southern California

Anthony Ricci, Ph.D.
Stanford University

Karina Cramer, Ph.D.
UC Irvine

Paul Fuchs, Ph.D.
Johns Hopkins University of Medicine

Ruth Litovsky, Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin

Monita Chatterjee, Ph.D.
Boys Town National Research Hospital

President and Chair: Dr. Ruth Litovsky

Hearing loss can significantly disrupt the ability of children to become mainstreamed in educational environments that emphasize spoken language as a primary means of communication. Similarly, adults who lose their hearing after communicating using spoken language have numerous challenges understanding speech and integrating into social situations. These challenges are particularly significant in noisy situations, where multiple sound sources often arrive at the ears from various directions. Intervention with hearing aids and/or cochlear implants (CIs) has proven to be highly successful for restoring some aspects of communication, including speech understanding and language acquisition. However, there is also typically a notable gap in outcomes relative to normal-hearing listeners. Importantly, auditory abilities operate in the context of how hearing integrates with other senses. Notably, the visual system is tightly couples to the auditory system. Vision is known to impact auditory perception and neural mechanisms in vision and audition are tightly coupled, thus, in order to understand how we hear and how CIs affect auditory perception we must consider the integrative effects across these senses. We start with Rebecca Alexander, a compelling public speaker who has been living with Usher’s Syndrome, a genetic disorder found in tens of thousands of people, causing both deafness and blindness in humans. To read more,

• Jeffrey Holt, Ph.D.
  • Introduction of Rebecca Alexander
• Rebecca Alexander, M.P.H.
  • Living With Uncertainty
• Susana Martinez-Conde
  • An Optogenetic Brain System (OBServ) to Restore Visual Perception in the Blind
• Stephen Macknik, Ph.D.
  • An Optogenetic Brain System (OBServ) to Restore Visual Perception in the Blind
• Jennifer Groh, Ph.D.
  • Eye Movement-Related Eardrum oscillations: What Your Brain Tells Your Ears about where You're Looking
• Rene Gifford, Ph.D.
  • Electric and acoustic stimulation (EAS) in adults and children
• Sharon Cushing, M.D.
  • Restoration of 3-Dimensional Perception in Children after Labyrinthine implantation: Auditory and Vestibular Effects
• Matthew Winn, Au.D., Ph.D.
  • Speech Perception with a Cochlear Implant: Percent-Correct Scores Do Not Explain Listening Effort
• Robert Shepherd, Ph.D.
  • Neural Prostheses: Cochlear Implants and beyond