Once you arrive at the University of Maryland, you will find the newly-renovated Neuroplasticity Research Center in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences. Here at the Neuroplasticity Research Center we strive to give our participants a comfortable experience as they participate in our NIH Funded Program Grant, Neuroplasticity in Auditory Aging Study.

The Neuroplasticity Research Center is where participants are seen but also our central location for gathering of our multidisciplinary team. Meetings occur on a regular basis to collaborate, share ideas and results, and work together to achieve our goals. While here, you may run into our staff including our investigators, graduate students and undergraduate students.

Our scheduling team is located in this space, whom you may have already met if you have contacted our office. The scheduling team is dedicated to answering your questions, scheduling your appointments, and preparing you for your first visit.

Carol Gorham is the manager of our study and ensures everything runs smoothly. She is an integral part of our team and recruits community members and students from the University of Maryland and surrounding areas to participate in our study. You may see her at community events sharing information about our research.

You will meet with Dr. Katie Brow, our audiologist, upon arrival to start the initial intake appointment. She will discuss in more detail what you can expect for that day and throughout your journey participating with us. She will let you know that day if you qualify to participate in the study and will go over your hearing evaluation results with you.

Ed Smith, Ph.D. is also at the Neuroplasticity Center. He implemented the at-home sentence understanding experiments. He developed the laptop computer programs and prepared the digital audio-the sentences-that participants hear in the study. He also developed computer programs which collate and analyze participant data and the results of each session.

 We welcome you to feel comfortable in the center, we know you are volunteering your time to be here and we appreciate your efforts to move hearing research forward.