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Mickael Deroche
Ph.D. (2009, Cardiff University, Speech Perception)
Master (2006, Poitiers University, Acoustics)
Engineering Diploma (2006, ESIP, Engineering)
Post Doctoral Scientist, CIP Lab, Dept of Hearing and Speech Sciences
Email: derochem@umd.edu
Phone: 301-405-4283
Address: Cochlear Implants and Psychophysics Lab
1211, Lefrak Hall, UMCP
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Research/Clinical Interests
1. Auditory processing of harmonicity, F0 information and pitch perception
2. Speech segregation
3. Cochlear Implants
Fellowships and Other Honors
Travel Grant to the 5th young researchers days on Audition, Musical Acoustics, and Audio Signal (French Society of Acoustics, November 2009, Marseille, France).
Junior Researcher of the year 2008 (School of Psychology, Cardiff University, second year PhD prize)
Travel Grant to the 4th young researchers days on Audition, Musical Acoustics, and Audio Signal (French Society of Acoustics, March 2008, Toulouse, France)
Research/Clinical Activities
First, my research has centered upon the problem of speech understanding in a background of competing voices. In order for a voice to be perceptually segregated from a competing voice, the auditory system exploits distinguishing features, among them the fundamental frequency (F0) information. There are grounds to think that the processing of F0 information might be closely related to the processing of harmonicity, pitch perception, modulation rates discrimination, dip-listening and non-linear compression of the basilar membrane. However, it remains unclear how all these mechanisms could be connected with each other. Some hearing deficits, especially outer-hair cells damages, focus my interests as they may or may not affect the aforementioned mechanisms. A better understanding of auditory processing in normal-hearing listeners will enhance the design of future hearing aid devices.
Second, cochlear implants have achieved great success as a sensory prosthesis for the severely or profoundly hearing-impaired. By electrically stimulating select areas of the hearing nerve, a cochlear implant delivers sufficient speech information to most listeners. However, speech quality remains poor, notably due to limited ability of the devices to deliver the fine-grained time-frequency information. This information is desirable for many purposes: intonation recognition, speech segregation, and even music perception as an ultimate goal. The current project aims to quantify the sensitivity of the cochlear-implanted auditory brain to temporal and spectral patterns and to relate the findings to patients' performance in everyday listening situations. The findings will contribute to the development of future generations of cochlear implant systems.
Third, relatively little is known about the auditory processing in children. Such knowledge is essential for our understanding of the auditory system development with age as well as a better approach of the treatment of early-implanted children. The development of new clinical assessment tools and speech processor designs will facilitate the communication and integration of this under-studied population.
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