Guest Editorial International Journal of Audiology 2008; 47 (Suppl. 2):S1S2
From signal to dialogue
Jerker Ro ¨ nnberg* Stig Arlinger§
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*Linko¨ping University, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Learning and The Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Linko¨ping, Sweden § Linko¨ping University, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linko¨ping, Sweden
Stig Arlinger Jerker Ro¨nnberg
Speech understanding cognition and communication This publication is based on 17-peer reviewed papers given at the international conference ‘From signal to dialogue: Dynamic aspects of hearing, language, and cognition’, held at Linko¨ping University, Sweden, September 78, 2007. The gathering was the third in a sequence of conferences/workshops held at the ¨ rebro. The first, based on 18 Universities of Linko¨ping and O papers, was held at Linko¨ping University in November 1997 and resulted in a supplement to Scandinavian Audiology called ‘Communication in the hearing-impaired and deaf: From signal to dialogue’. The second, based on another 18 papers, was held ¨ rebro University Hospital in September 2001 and was at O published in the International Journal of Audiology under the title ‘Assessment of auditory communication: From laboratory to real life’. All three conferences share an emphasis on the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary nature of research in the area of hearing and deafness. This means that we have invited international speakers who cover neurobiological, psychological, technical, and social aspects of communication and have encouraged them to present papers that link and integrate several of these
ISSN 1499-2027 print/ISSN 1708-8186 online DOI: 10.1080/14992020802311497 # 2008 British Society of Audiology, International Society of Audiology, and Nordic Audiological Society
Received: June 25, 2008 Accepted: June 30, 2008
aspects. All three workshops have been financed by programme grants from the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research. As a standing organization committee, the following persons have participated in the planning and organization of the conferences: Jerker Ro¨nnberg, chair Gerhard Andersson, Stig Arlinger, Erik Borg, Berth Danermark, Birgitta Larsby, Thomas Lunner, Bjo¨rn Lyxell, Mary Rudner, and Stefan Stenfelt. Hele´n Johansson, administrative coordinator
The programme grant has been instrumental in forming an ¨ rebro. In axis between the Universities of Linko¨ping and O addition, the grant, and the collaboration it engendered, became vital factors in the establishment of the Swedish Institute for Disability Research (SIDR). SIDR was founded in 2000 as a result of collaboration ¨ rebro. The SIDR between the Universities of Linko¨ping and O graduate programme is a leading European research programme in disability. Apart from research on hearing and deafness, SIDR offers research opportunities in other areas of communicative disability, such as dyslexia and dysarthria. Investigations are
Dr. Jerker Ro¨nnberg Linko¨ping University, Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning and The Swedish Institute for Disability Research Linko¨ping, Sweden. Email:
[email protected]
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focussed on a variety of diagnostic groups, such as persons with Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, Usher’s syndrome, Klein-Levine’s syndrome, Down’s syndrome, and insomnia. Applications may be found in areas such as working life, education, and Internet treatment. Twenty-six PhD theses have been produced since 2000, and 45 doctoral students are currently active. For more information about SIDR, see www.ihv.se. The research activities in the field of HEaring And Deafness ¨ rebro focus on (HEAD) at the Universities of Linko¨ ping and O compensatory and communicative forms and mechanisms in persons with hearing impairment and deafness, with a special emphasis on cognitive hearing science (CHS). CHS may be defined as a new, interdisciplinary field that focuses on how hearing-impaired and deaf people deploy cognitive resources to communicate in realistic, everyday situations. We will chart and model the dynamic interplay in the nervous system between human cognition and auditory signal processing, both aided and unaided. Research will investigate how the brain constructs meaning from degraded and distorted input signals, and how brain plasticity varies in relation to the developmental trajectories of cognition and language across the lifespan. The communicative consequences of available sensory modality (visual, auditory and audiovisual) and preferred language modality (sign and speech) are studied at neural, cognitive and social levels of analysis to ensure robust modelling of necessary and sufficient stages of processing and adequacy of levels of description. The malleability of the sensory-cognitive interface is addressed in targeted intervention studies. It is important in this context to note that a first major step towards contributing to the CHS area was taken by the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology (2007), which published an issue entitled ’Cognition in audiology’, with K. Pichora-Fuller as guest editor. Recently, the Swedish Research Council funded a HEAD graduate school. Some of the graduate students who are enrolled in the SIDR graduate program will also be a part of HEAD. In addition, we have accepted another group of HEAD graduate students in spring 2008, and so there are around 15 HEAD students. For more information about HEAD, see http://www.ibl.liu.se/cdd/ihv/head. Recently, the Swedish Research Council announced that the Linnaeus Centre for Research on Hearing and Deafness (HEAD): Excellence in the field of cognitive hearing science, located at Linko¨ ping University, will receive a major 10-year grant. The graduate school and the Linnaeus Centre will together constitute a platform for the CHS area, and the current supplement of the International Journal of Audiology represents one important step in consoli-
dating the area. The supplement will also become an important reference item in teaching and research activities for HEAD graduate students. As with the previous conferences/workshops, we invited a highly select and distinguished group of international scientists who have contributed not only to the development of the HEAD area in general but also to key elements of our vision statement. This group includes Michael Akeroyd, Ruth Campbell, Ann Geers, Kerttu Huttunen, Sophia Kramer, Risto Na¨ a¨ ta¨ nen, Kathy Pichora-Fuller, and Nancy Tye Murray. First authors of papers from HEAD include Gerhard Andersson, Erik Borg, Berth Danermark, Birgitta Larsby, Bjo¨ rn Lyxell, Mary Rudner, Jerker Ro¨ nnberg, Stefan Stenfelt and Vendela Westin. The order of papers in the publication follows a simple logic: research that focuses on (1) the neural, signal processing, and perceptual aspects of communication; (2) cognitive aspects of communication with and without hearing instruments; and (3) social, ecological, and rehabilitation aspects of hearing impairment and deafness. At the conference, emphasis was put on the CHS aspect of the whole HEAD area. Last but not least, we want to dedicate the entire publication to Stuart Gatehouse whose untimely death came as a shock to all of us involved in CHS. Stuart was a tremendous source of inspiration, and he took the lead in pointing out the importance of cognitive functions in the fitting of hearing aids. Stuart was invited to the conference, and the last sentence of his abstract strikes right at the heart of what the conference was about, ‘There is therefore a growing body of evidence which suggests that appropriate hearing aid and non-instrumentational rehabilitation should include an emphasis on attentional and cognitive capacities if the potential benefits of modern technology hearing aids are to be realized’ We are certain that he would have loved to see the explosion in CHS that has taken place during the last couple of years, many examples of which are represented by key contributions to the current publication. We are convinced that readers will agree with us. Linko¨ ping, May 2008
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International Journal of Audiology, Volume 47 Supplement 2
References Assessment of auditory communication: From laboratory to real life. 2003. Internat J Audiol, 42, Suppl 1, 1142. Communication in the hearing-impaired and deaf: From signal to dialogue. 1998. Scand Audiol, 27, Suppl 49, 1139. Pichora-Fuller, K. 2007. Cognition in audiology (Special issue). J Am Acad Audiol, 18(7).
