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Tobias Overath

Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Psychology & Neuroscience
90999, Durham, NC 27708
308 Research Drive, LSRC Room B248A, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708

Overview


Research in our lab investigates how sound is processed in the human brain. More specifically, we study the acoustic building blocks that must be assembled in complex listening situations, such as when we engage in a conversation or listen to a symphony. One branch of our research program centers on the neural representation of fundamental acoustic parameters, e.g. pitch and timbre, and the neural mechanisms for detecting meaningful acoustic changes of such parameters within an auditory scene. A second branch of our research investigates auditory perception at a linguistic level and addresses the transformation from speech-specific acoustic analysis to speech-specific linguistic analysis, with an emphasis on temporal integration constants. We employ a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methods (fMRI, EEG) to elucidate the underlying neural processes in human auditory cortex with high spatial and temporal precision.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Assistant Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience · 2018 - Present Psychology & Neuroscience, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience · 2016 - Present Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences · 2018 - Present Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, University Institutes and Centers

In the News


Published July 20, 2016
Personalized Music Therapy Benefits People with Dementia—and Their Caregivers
Published March 7, 2016
Studying a Virtuoso Violinist's Brain with MRI
Published July 17, 2015
How the brain perceives time

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Recent Publications


Linguistic modulation of the neural encoding of phonemes.

Journal Article Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · April 2024 Speech comprehension entails the neural mapping of the acoustic speech signal onto learned linguistic units. This acousto-linguistic transformation is bi-directional, whereby higher-level linguistic processes (e.g. semantics) modulate the acoustic analysis ... Full text Cite

Hidden hearing loss: Fifteen years at a glance.

Journal Article Hearing research · March 2024 Hearing loss affects approximately 18% of the population worldwide. Hearing difficulties in noisy environments without accompanying audiometric threshold shifts likely affect an even larger percentage of the global population. One of the potential causes o ... Full text Cite

Quantifying the Impact of Auditory Deafferentation on Speech Perception.

Journal Article Trends in hearing · January 2024 The past decade has seen a wealth of research dedicated to determining which and how morphological changes in the auditory periphery contribute to people experiencing hearing difficulties in noise despite having clinically normal audiometric thresholds in ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Otolaryngology Surgeon- Scientist career Path (OSSP) program

Inst. Training Prgm or CMEMentor · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2022 - 2027

A High-Performance 3T MRI for Brain Imaging

EquipmentMinor User · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2021 - 2022

Cortical tracking of speech-specific temporal structure in familiar vs. foreign

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institutes of Health · 2018 - 2022

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Education, Training & Certifications


University College London (United Kingdom) · 2009 Ph.D.
Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany) · 2004 M.S.

External Links


O-Lab Homepage