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    Michael S. Osmanski
    The Dooling Laboratory of Comparative Psychoacoustics
     

     

Integrative Neuroscience Program
Department of Psychology
University of Maryland 
College Park, MD 20742
Phone: 301.405.5940
email
 

 


Education:
        Ph.D. -   (anticipated) 2006, University of Maryland, College Park, MD
        M.S. -    2000-2002, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (Psychology [Integrative Neuroscience])
                            Institutional Honors:
        B.S. -     1995-2000, The University of Scranton, Scranton, PA (Psychology & Neuroscience)
                            Institutional Honors: cum laude

Academic Honors/Awards:
        CEBH (Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing), Institutional Predoctoral NRSA Fellowship Award (2001-2003)
 
        Lawrence Lennon Award for Outstanding Service and Achievement in Psychology, presented by The University of Scranton's Department of
            Psychology (2000)
 

Scientific Memberships/Societies:
        Acoustical Society of America (2001)
        Animal Behavior Society (2002)
        Association for Reserach in Otolaryngology (pending)
        International Society for Neuroethology (2001)

        Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society (2001)
        Sigma Tau Delta, The National Honor Society in English (2000)
        Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges (1999)
        The National Dean's List (1998)
        Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology (1997)

 


Research Interests:
        My current research  has to do with acoustic communication in birds; I do most of my work with small birds, such as zebra finches and budgerigars.  My primary interest lies in the interface between the production and perception of complex sounds, especially species-specific vocalizations such as contact calls and songs, and how such behavior may have arisen over the course of avian evolution.

    "Ripples":  One of the major goals of hearing research is to understand how the auditory system (of any species) processes complex, natural sounds.  Birds produce some of the most complex animal vocalizations in the world but, unfortunately, the very complexity of those vocalizations renders them difficult, if not impossible, to manipulate in any quantifiable, systematic sense; thus, it is often difficult to investigate the functioning of auditory systems based on such stimuli.   I studied how zebra finches and budgerigars hear a type of complex broadband noise, affectionately called a "ripple", which may simulate the characteristics of natural sounds.  Ripple sounds have sinusoidally-modulated logarithmic amplitudes and a drifting spectral envelope (moving either up or down in frequency); these complex sounds can be easily modeled and quantified, yet share some of the characteristics of both bird vocalizations and the formant transitions of human speech.  Using operant conditioning methods, I trained zebra finches and budgerigars to discriminate between flat-spectrum broadband noise and noises with rippled spectra of different densities that move up or down in frequency at various rates.  This research is the product of a collaborative effort with Didier Depireux, currently at the University of Maryland, Baltimore and affiliated with the Institute for Systems Research at the University of Maryland, College Park.

    Vocal Production:    Description coming soon..

    Turtle Hearing:    An attempt to measure behavioral audiograms in the red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). Description coming soon.

 


Publications:
      Osmanski, M.S., Dooling, R.J., Depireux, D.A., & Shamma, S.A. (in prep). Discrimination of dynamic moving ripples in birds.

Abstracts/Presentations:
    Osmanski, M.S., Dooling, R.J., & Plachikkat, V.V.  (February, 2003). Effects of pitch-altered auditory feedback on budgerigar vocal production.  Association for Research in Otolaryngology, Daytona Beach, FL.
 
    Osmanski, M.S., Dooling, R.J., Plachikkat, V.V. (2002). The pitch-shift reflex in budgerigar vocal production.  Behavioral Neurobiology of Birdsong, New York, NY.

   Osmanski, M.S., Dooling, R.J., & Depireux, D.A. (2002). Discrimination of dynamic moving ripples in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. Acoustical Society of America, Pittsburgh, PA

    Osmanski, M. S., Dooling, R. J., & Depireux, D. A.  (2001).  Discrimination thresholds for spectrally-modulated complex sounds in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata.  International Congress of Neuroethology, Bonn, Germany.
 
 

    *Osmanski, M.S., Polowczuk, L.A., Maddern, J.L., & Cannon, J.T. (1999). Capsaicin and mechanical crush produce sensitization of the foot-lift response to radiant heat in Helix aspersa: Effects of systemic lidocaine and MK-801. Society for Neuroscience, Miami Beach, FL.

    *Osmanski, M.S., Polowczuk, L.A., & Cannon, J.T. (1999).  Capsaicin can produce sensitization of the foot-lift response to radiant heat in the land snail, Helix aspersa.  North East Under/graduate Research Organization for Neuroscience (N.E.U.R.O.N), Hartford, CT.

    *Osmanski, M. S., Quinn, J. J., Mahometa, M. J., Herbert, K. R., & Cannon, J. T. (1998).  Systemic lidocaine disrupts sensitization of the tail-flick response to radiant heat.  Society for Neuroscience, Los Angeles, CA.

    *Osmanski, M. S., Quinn, J. J., & Cannon, J. T. (1998).  Being the recipient of unilateral intromission can induce an opioid form of hypoalgesia in the land snail, Helix aspersa. International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, Richmond, VA.

    *Osmanski, M. S. (1998).  The larger part of each of us: A model of the physiology of religion.  University of Scranton psychology conference, Scranton, PA.
 

(* Representative research from my undergraduate days at the University of Scranton)

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