Over the past decade, I have researched subclinical hearing disorders: "hidden" hearing disorders that don't show up on standard hearing tests. I work to understand their causes, their consequences, and better ways of measuring and diagnosing them.

My largest project (£2.3m, 2021-26) looks at the effects of noise exposure, especially on tinnitus and hearing ability. My other work considers hearing differences in police personnel, older adults, developing nations, and the autistic community.

Brief project info is below. If you want to know more (whether you're an academic, student, clinician, or member of the public), drop me a line at [email protected].

The Hearing In Teens (HIT) study (2021-26)

Typical nightclubs and gigs may be loud enough to cause permanent damage to ears and nerves, after even a few visits. Despite valiant efforts by researchers, we still don't adequately understand their consequences. In the UK, many teenagers start routinely going to gigs and clubs at 17-18. The HIT study has measured the hearing of 220 teens (in depth, over 3.5 hours) and will repeat the measurements in 2025, once many of them have noisy nightlives. This before-and-after design (and large group of teens) gives us unprecedented power to understand the effects of noise on hearing.

The Airwave hearing study (2024-25)

For the past two decades, UK police personnel have used TETRA personal radios to communicate, usually via an ear-piece. The ear-pieces can be extremely loud (typically ~102 dBA at full volume) and are worn in a single ear. To prevent hearing damage, users must routinely select low volume-control settings. Until now, researchers have not investigated the actual extent of exposure among police staff, nor their effects on hearing. The Airwave hearing study surveyed ~4500 police staff and ex-staff about their ear-piece use and hearing health. Preliminary results suggest that ear-piece use is associated with increased risk of tinnitus and hearing loss, but only in the subset of ear-piece users who experience signs of temporary hearing loss after use. Results have important implications for hearing health surveillance, and will be published in 2025.

The SPAACE project: Speech Perception by Autistic Adults in Complex Environments (2020-25)

Autistic people often report difficulties hearing in noisy places, but research findings are pretty unclear. Existing research hasn't asked autistic people to describe in detail what they experience, and this lack of detailed information from the people affected might explain why some lab research has missed the mark. The SPAACE project is run by hearing researchers, autism researchers, and autistic researchers, and uses the expertise of the autistic community to drive better autistic hearing research. 

OPAL: Occupational Noise in Palestine (2023-24)

In the UK, health and safety regulations have reduced exposure of workers to damaging noise. In developing nations, the dangers to hearing remain much greater. Dr Adnan Shehabi will collect hearing measurements from Palestinian workers, both in the lab and on job sites, to understand effects of noise on standard hearing tests and "hidden" hearing problems.

MOSS: The Manchester Online Speech-perception Suite (2020-22)

Developed over lockdown, MOSS allows researchers to deliver complex speech-in-noise tasks via web browsers all over the world. The tasks are highly configurable, and allow a vast array of speech sounds to be played to listeners without slow loading times. (For the coders out there: It's written in C++ and transpiled via emscripten into wasm, with files downloading while the listener is busy listening and responding, to keep the user experience smooth.) Currently available in English and Arabic. If you're a researcher and fancy using it, email me at [email protected].

The N-Expo study: Imaging "hidden" hearing damage (2021-25)

In 2009, we learned that noise exposure (in rodents) can cause "hidden" hearing problems, by damaging the nerve that connects the ear to the brain. Does the same happen in humans? A decade later, this remains controversial, mainly because we can't look directly at the nerve in living humans. Dr Rebecca Dewey is using MRI to capture images of the nerve, in greater detail than ever before. We will combine them with detailed hearing tests in 200 people (some with noisy jobs, some without) to give the clearest picture yet of the effects of noise on the auditory nerve.

Professor Chris Plack

Professor Kevin Munro

Dr Alexandra Sturrock

Dr Adnan Shehabi

Professor Paul Elliott

Dr Rebecca Dewey

Dr Emma Gowen

Dr George Bendo

BSc (Hons) Hearing & Balance Studies (1st class) - University of Manchester, 2014

PhD Audiology - University of Manchester, 2018