Frequency Following Response (FFR) Workshop

22nd & 23rd May 2014, London, UK

Chandler House
University College London
2, Wakefield Street
London WC1N 1PF

University College London (UCL) &
Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

The Frequency-Following Response (FFR) is an auditory evoked neural response at the level of the brainstem. It has gained much popularity over the past few years and is applied to examine auditory processing at the level of the brainstem in a wide range of (clinical) groups. The FFR has been used, for instance, as a tool to assess changes in brainstem plasticity following musical or linguistic experience, and to study the effects of ageing, hearing loss, or learning difficulties on subcortical auditory processing. Despite its popularity, a lot remains unknown about the FFR: what are the underlying processes involved in generating the response and what do the components making up the FFR reflect exactly? What kind of analyses are most appropriate to characterize the response? And what does inter-individual variability in the FFR signify? The aim of this workshop is to bring the FFR community together and to open up the discussion on the origins and interpretation of the response, explore new recording and analysis techniques, and discuss hot topics in this rapidly evolving field. The workshop will take place in London, UK on the 22nd and 23rd of May 2014.

The following speakers have confirmed their contributions:

• Hedwig Gockel (University of Cambridge, UK)
• Garreth Prendergast (The University of Manchester, UK)
• Steve Aiken (Dalhousie University, Canada)
• Ravi Krishnan (Purdue University, USA)
• Paul Deltenre (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)
• Philip Joris (KU Leuven, Belgium)

The Book of Abstracts is available.

The following talks/posters are available for download:

• Cochlear influences on the timing of the speech-ABR, H. E. Nuttall
• Unweaving the Rainbow: Sensitivity to Stimulus Phase and Polarity in the Human Frequency Following Response, Dr. Steve J Aiken
• Extracting the Cochlear Microphonic from the FFR, P. Deltenre, P.Connor, N. Wallaert, and A. Calcus
• Language experience shapes representation of pitch relevant neural activity in the human brainstem, Ananthanarayan (Ravi) Krishnan
• Cortical influences on brainstem FFR during productions whilst speakers hear their own voice, Eryk Walczak, Jyrki Tuomainen, Stephen Nevard and Peter Howell
• Measuring the latency of the frequency following response through group delay, Andrew King, Kathryn Hopkins, Christopher J. Plack
• Frequency- Following Response (FFR) may detect auditory spatial processing, Nematollah Rouhbakhsh, Bram Van Dun, Harvey Dillon, Jörg Buchholz, Ananthanarayan Krishnan

The organising team:

• Tim Schoof (University College London, London, UK)
• Axelle Calcus (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium)
• Stuart Rosen (University College London, London, UK)
• Cécile Colin (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium)

We gratefully acknowledge the support of: