H. Steven Colburn

Director, Hearing Research Center
Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Boston University
44 Cummington Street
Boston, MA 02215
Phone: (617) 353-4342
Fax: (617) 353-6766
Email: colburn@bu.edu
Auditory Perception Lab

SB, SM, Ph.D., Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research Interests:

Dr. Colburn's research involves the application of signal processing, statistical communication theory, and computational modeling to the study of hearing and hearing impairments. He is particularly interested in the measurement and modeling of binaural hearing performance. Specific current research topics include modeling the activity of auditory brainstem neurons, measurement and modeling of spatial attributes of sound perception, speech intelligibility in complex sound environments, and the effects of hearing impairments on binaural abilities.

Research Collaborators:
Ruth Litovsky, Abhijit Kulkarni, John Culling

Graduate Students:
Bob Dizon, Monica Hawley, Vasant Dasika, Madhavi Vedula

Selected Recent Publications:

Kulkarni, A., Isabelle, S.K., and Colburn, H.S. (1999) "Sensitivity of Human Subjects to Head-Related-Transfer-Function Phase Spectra," J. Acoust. Soc. Am., in press.

Hawley, M.H., Litovsky, R.L., and Colburn, H.S. (1999) "Intelligibility and localization of speech signals in a multi-source environment," J. Acoust. Soc. Am., in press.

Kulkarni, A., and Colburn, H.S. (1998) "Role of spectral detail in sound-source localization," Nature 396, 747-749.

Cai, H., Carney, L., and Colburn, H.S. (1998) "A model for binaural response properties of inferior colliculus neurons. I. A model with excitatory and inhibitory inputs", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 475-493.

Cai, H., Carney, L., and Colburn, H.S. (1998) "Models for binaural response properties of inferior colliculus neurons. II. A model with excitatory and inhibitory inputs and an adaptation mechanism", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 494-506.

Colburn, H.S., Isabelle, S.K., and Tollin, D.J. (1997) "Modeling binaural detection performance for individual masker waveforms." in Binaural and Spatial Hearing in Real and Virtual Environments (eds. R.H. Gilkey and T.A. Anderson) Erlbaum: New Jersey pp. 533-555.

Colburn, H.S. (1996) "Computational models of binaural processing." in Auditory Computation (eds., H. Hawkins and T. McMullen), Volume in Springer Handbook on Auditory Research (eds., A. Popper and R. Fay) Springer: New York pp. 332-400.