Members of the Psychology Department’s Auditory Perception and Cognition lab, Dr. Anahita Mehta, Dr. Lei Feng, and Professor Andrew Oxenham, recently published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. The paper entitled “Neural auditory contrast enhancement in humans” shows how our ability to detect novel sounds, and to recognize familiar sounds in novel environments, is helped by brain responses that adapt to the ongoing acoustic environment. The work provides the first experimental neural evidence in humans for a theory that was proposed in the early 1980s by University of Minnesota Psychology professor, Neal Viemeister (1944-2020). The research identifies approaches for improving hearing aids and cochlear implants to take advantage of the new findings

Congratulations to Finola Eileen Kane-Grade, Sarah Gillespie, and Andrea Wiglesworth for their recent NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award. The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in STEM-related fields who are pursuing research-based masters and doctoral degrees. This is a five-year fellowship that includes three years of financial support including a stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution.

Spring 2021 graduate Bridget Brown reflects on her time at the University of Minnesota as an undergraduate in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch and looks forward to what the future holds.

Congratulations to Bonnie Klimes-Dougan, contract associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, and Wilma Koutstaal, professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota for receiving the 2021 Minnesota Futures Award.