Bases for auditory cognition

Professor Griffiths's research concerns human complex-sound processing - the analysis of auditory patterns relevant to speech, music and environmental-sound analysis. He studies deficits in complex-sound processing in patients with brain lesions, using functional imaging data (fMRI and MEG) from normal subjects and depth electrode data from the auditory cortex of neurosurgical patients. The functional imaging is carried out at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging in London and the depth electrode data is acquired at the University of Iowa. These studies allow inferences to be made about normal complex-sound processing mechanisms. Other work explores abnormal complex-sound analysis in developmental and degenerative disorders, and brain mechanisms for tinnitus and auditory hallucinations.