Welcome to the
We study speech comprehension, pitch perception, music appreciation, and the way sound signals are processed in cochlear implants.
Want to participate in a study?
We are currently actively recruiting both normal-hearing listeners in the greater Los Angeles area and cochlear implant users all across the globe! Please click on the button below and fill out your contact information on our Participate in a Study page to get started.
Below are some downloadable flyers – feel free to share them with your friends and family!
News!
3/1/2023: Please give a warm welcome to the newest member of the BEL Team, Alex Presacco! You can learn all about our new Research Associate on our members page!
2/24/2023: Congratulations to Chrysa, Julianne, Ray, and Dr. Beatriz Ilari! Their new paper on the CI Music Hour was recently published in the International Journal of Community Music. Read their new paper here and locate it on our Publications page!
2/11/2023: Going to the Association for Research in Otolaryngology MidWinter Meeting? Be sure to come see Ray’s talk during the Presidential Symposium at 10:15am EST about the history of cochlear implants and future directions. Also, be sure to stop by Sam, Danny, Brandon, Helena, and Ray’s poster (SA31) about how we characterize musical emotions in cochlear implant users.
12/7/2022: A big congratulations to our new Masters in Community Music graduate, Julianne Papadopoulos! We’re so proud of you and are grateful for all of your hard work at the BEL!
12/6/2022: A huge congratulations to our new Ph.D. graduate, Dr. Susan Bissmeyer. We’re so proud of you and all you have accomplished!
6/17/2022: Congrats to Ray whose paper just got published in Frontiers for Computational Neuroscience. Read about his research here and locate it on our Publications page!
6/1/2022: Welcome to our new research assistants! Read soon about Elsa, Hubert, Brandon, Justin, and Kyle on our members page!
4/28/2022: Our lab made the Keck School of Medicine News! Check out our latest research here.
1/20/2022: Thank you for Richard Reed to kicking off our first CI Music Hour of 2022! There is a time change from last year: CI Music Hour is now from 12:30-1:30pm PST. Please email BIONIC-L@usc.edu to join!
1/3/2022: Congrats to Susan, Andres, and Ray, whose paper just got published in The Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (JARO)! Check out the article on our Publications page and here.
12/28/2021: Congrats to Andres, Grace, Julianne, Sam, and Ray, whose paper just got published in the “Advances in Music-Related Neuroplasticity: Mechanisms and Medicine” issue of Brain Sciences! Check out the article on our Publications page and here.
12/9/2021: Robert Zurawin and Sandy Blake accompanied us in a Holiday Sing-A-Long in our final CI Music Hour of 2021! Happy Holidays! See you all in 2022!