Research
The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at UConn, a nationally-ranked R1 university, conducts leading-edge basic and applied research in speech, language, hearing, and related fields. The department hosts a vibrant intellectual community of scholars who frequently collaborate across disciplines.
Research Overview
Our department is a key contributor to UConn’s excellence in the study of speech, language, hearing, and communication. Our areas of strength include the perceptual and cognitive neurosciences of auditory, speech, and language processes, both for typical and special populations, and the rehabilitation of those processes.
As an applied arm of a world-class research institution, our researchers are uniquely positioned to translate basic scholarship into interventions that impact people's ability to communicate. Our research intersects with our commitment to public service through our Speech and Hearing Clinic, as well as our engagement with partners across UConn and beyond our campuses.
Faculty Laboratories
Aphasia Rehab Lab
The Aphasia Rehab Lab is focused on the optimization of aphasia rehabilitation, more specifically, investigating how clinicians can manipulate the neuroplastic response to treatment for the best possible language outcomes.
Auditory Brain Research Lab
The Auditory Brain Research Lab focuses on cochlear and brain function across the lifespan, using a novel combination of behavioral, neuroelectric, structural, hemodynamic, ecological, and serological measures of auditory processing.
Auditory Perception and Neuroscience Laboratory
The Auditory Perception and Neuroscience Laboratory uses a combination of behavioral, physiological, and electrophysiological techniques, we investigate how different auditory experiences (e.g., speech, language, music, and auditory training) impact typical and atypical auditory systems.
Aural Rehabilitation Laboratory
The Aural Rehabilitation Laboratory uses individualized and comprehensive hearing health care plans with patient or family-centered care to treat individuals through collaboration and shared decision-making to improve individual hearing healthcare outcomes.
Brain and Language on the Autism Spectrum Lab
the Brain and Language on the Autism Spectrum Team examines the behavioral and neural correlates of communication in autistic children and adolescents who use minimal or no spoken language.
Hearing Experience and Language Learning Outcomes (HELLO) Lab
The HELLO Lab is dedicated to exploring language learning, one of the most fundamental aspects of development. Lab members study factors that impact spoken language learning, psychosocial development, and family interaction in children who are D/deaf or hard of hearing.
Language and Reading Disorders Lab
The Language and Reading Disorders Lab examines the communication skills of children with language impairments and reading disorders, and their normally-developing peers.
Language and Brain Lab
The Language and Brain Lab focuses on how speech signals are perceived and mapped to meaning using neuroimaging methods (fMRI, MRI, ERP, TMS) with standard psycholinguistic measures while working with unimpaired and language-disordered populations.
Speech Perceptions and Language Development Lab
The Speech Perceptions and Language Development Lab focuses on the influence of language on the perception of speech sounds from infancy through young adulthood. The lab also investigates cross-cultural speech perception in native speakers of Spanish, English, and bilingual individuals.
Laboratory for Spoken Language Processing
The Laboratory for Spoken Language Processing examines spoken language processing to promote a theoretical understanding of the perceptual mechanisms that support listeners' ability to dynamically adapt to structured phonetic variation.
Centers and Institutes
Our faculty are involved in several interdisciplinary research entities at UConn. These entities create an environment for cross-disciplinary collaboration that strengthens our faculty research and provides opportunities for growth for our graduate students. Examples include:
Brain Imaging Research Center
The Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC) facilitates scientific discovery and theoretical innovation in cognitive neuroscience and other fields by providing access to state-of-the-art equipment, methods, and training. Its facilities support both brain and whole-body imaging and research across the lifespan and on a range of clinical and nonclinical populations. The center also provides educational, research, and outreach programs for students in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.
Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development
The Center for the Study of Culture, Health, and Human Development (CHHD) promotes interdisciplinary scientific collaboration, training, and outreach related to human development and health in cultural context.
Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy
The Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) brings together individuals with diverse scientific, clinical, and methodological expertise in the areas of public health and well-being. It also supports faculty and students as they evolve into collaborative investigators who conduct innovative research.
Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences
The Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS) serves as both a beacon and incubator for research across the brain and cognitive sciences at UConn and beyond. It also promotes and supports the interdisciplinary science of the mind and its realization in biological and artificial systems.
External Partnerships
Researchers in our department are affiliated with Haskins Laboratories. A joint venture between UConn and Yale, Haskins Lab is one of the only independent, international, multidisciplinary communities of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. Our affiliation with the lab connects our faculty and student researchers with scholars at other top research institutions, and in turn strengthens our scholarly community at UConn.