Dr. Bertrand Delgutte’s research focuses on how the auditory system processes biologically significant sounds, such as speech, with the goal of understanding the neural basis of auditory perception. He is also interested in applying this knowledge to improve hearing aids and cochlear implants.

His research is motivated by the observation that hearing impaired listeners, deaf users of cochlear implants, and automatic speech recognition systems all have trouble understanding speech in noisy and reverberant settings, even if they do well in quiet. Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying the good performance of normal hearing listeners in these everyday challenging conditions may suggest improvements in both assistive devices and artificial systems.