Cochlear Implant Research

Located within the COMD department, we have continuous access to cutting-edge research on speech perception, production, hearing, and language organization in the brain. The strength of our program is enhanced by our partnership with the Translational Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at USC. Through this partnership, our team integrates advanced clinical services with behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging techniques to study auditory, speech, and language outcomes in cochlear implant patients. Our team actively participates in research on cochlear implant candidacy, devices, programming, and outcomes, including clinical trial studies. Your audiologist and speech-language pathologist may discuss opportunities to participate in our research if you are interested.

Cochlear Implant Education 

In addition to a research-focused doctoral program in the department of communication sciences and disorders at USC, the department also has a master's degree program that focuses on preparing clinician-scientists to advance the practice of hearing and speech-language pathology. Our master's students in the auditory-verbal therapy (AVT) track and Ph.D. students specializing in cochlear implant research obtain extensive training in cochlear implant clinical and research work through their courses and research involvement in the clinic and the Translational Auditory Neuroscience lab. This serves as a unique model to prepare our students for careers in audiology and speech-language pathology. Our students have the opportunity to present their work at national conferences and publish in high-quality journals. Additional opportunities are available for master’s students to gain mentoring experience through graduate research assistantship. For more information, please email Meisam Arjmandi, Ph.D. or Laura Droege, AuD, CCC-A.