Xena Liu  

Hearing research faces several significant challenges, including a relative lack of awareness compared to other conditions, despite its impact on a person’s overall well-being. In addition, hearing is a complicated process, taking in psychology, biology, medicine, and engineering, so it requires researchers in different disciplines to work together to push the field forward. ss.  

My motivation to work in hearing research arises from my background in psychology and language sciences. Because of the profound impact that communication difficulties can have on various aspects of someone’s life, including their mental health and overall quality of life, I believe it is meaningful to conduct research in this field.

The intricate interplay between hearing and other senses such as vision, as well as cognitive functions such as attention and working memory, provides a valuable avenue to gain deeper insight into the brain and human communication, and there is also the potential for significant clinical benefit.  

I hope that my current research will lead to a deeper understanding of the interaction between listening effort and various cognitive abilities like attention, in both younger and older people, including those with hearing loss.

In my project, we hope to further validate the use of listening effort (through pupillometry (measuring dilation of the pupils) and measurement microsaccades, which are rapid involuntary eye movements) as a valuable measure in clinical practice, for example, to evaluate the benefits of hearing aids and cochlear implants.  

My RNID studentship gives me the opportunity to study hearing, and I hope it is the beginning of my academic pathway to becoming an independent researcher in cognitive neuroscience and speech and hearing pathology.