Auditory Development Conference

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

? DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Auditory Development: From Cochlea to Cognition Conference will provide a forum for junior and senior scientists from many disciplines to share unpublished, innovative research about the mechanisms that regulate the maturation of hearing at multiple levels of analysis. The conference will also address the impact of developmental research on our understanding of hearing disorders that arise from defects in mechanisms of maturation. The specific objectives are to foster interactions across sub disciplines, promote a sense of community, and encourage the development of collaborative research among those working on different aspects of auditory development. The conference will also provide a supportive scientific setting that will encourage and excite students to enter the field of auditory developmental research. The invited speakers include prominent scholars in the field, while the contributed presentations will feature promising young scientists who are applying new approaches or ideas to auditory developmental research. A second mechanism to encourage interaction and debate will be three round table discussions that each address a pressing question in the field. All participants will be encouraged to present their research at highly interactive, extended poster sessions, with 12 of the contributed abstracts selected for shorter talks that will be interleaved with invited presentations. The Auditory Development: Cochlea to Cognition Conference will be held August 14-15, 2015 at the University of Washington in Seattle, an ideal academic setting for encouraging intense and invigorating discussions in a collegial atmosphere. The specific program described in this application has the overarching goals of representing the breadth of developmental research in the hearing sciences, while also advancing new thematic foci. Thus, the Conference will highlight research areas that focus on potential interactions between auditory pathway loci. The influence of cognitive factors such as attention during the course of auditory system maturation will be considered. Finally, the meeting will integrate clinically relevant research in the area of hearing loss, including the vulnerability of both cochlea and central nervous system to developmental injury, and restoration. Here, basic research findings will dovetail with the latest findings on cochlear prostheses, regeneration, gene therapy and central plasticity mechanisms. The Conference will provide participants with an ideal setting to explore how research approaches at very different levels relate to one another, thereby facilitating new ideas and collaborations.