My research focuses on understanding how sensory health supports brain health and how these interactions enhance safe mobility (balance, walking, and driving) under realistic and challenging conditions. This includes understanding how age-related sensory impairments (e.g., vision, hearing) and cognitive impairments can increase the risk of falls and vehicle collisions (e.g., in healthy older adults, those with hearing loss or dementia). I use virtual reality and simulation technologies to a) carefully recreate real-world conditions to facilitate the application of research outcomes to real-world situations and b) adapt these technologies for prevention, training, and rehabilitation interventions.
Do hearing aids support balance in older adults with hearing loss?
Study Status: completed
Institute: KITE Research Institute
Study Purpose: Can hearing aids reduce falls-risk?
Background: Age-related hearing loss is a risk factor for mobility problems and falls. The act of listening requires brain resources. Hearing loss makes listening more effortful and may take important brain resources away from other tasks (i.e. balancing). Assistive technologies, such as hearing aids, may help reduce the amount of brain resources needed to support everyday listening tasks. This means hearing aids may improve balance and possibly reduce falls by reducing the brain resources needed for listening.
Study Methods: This study used KITE’s StreetLab, a virtual reality simulator to simulate a realistic listening-while-balancing task in older adults with normal hearing and hearing loss. We tested whether participants with hearing loss had better listening and balancing performance when wearing their hearing aids compared to not wearing their hearing aids. Participants performed a listening-while-balancing task under different challenges such as with their eyes closed, when standing on a soft surface, and when there were background noises in the environment.
Key Findings: Older adults with normal hearing had better listening task performance than those with hearing loss. Older adults with hearing loss had better listening performance when wearing their hearing aids compared to when unaided. Participant with and without hearing loss, both had better listening performance with their eyes closed (compared to open) and while standing on a firm surface (compared to a soft surface). Largely there were no effects of hearing aids on balance-related outcomes. Study findings could be used to make recommendations for hearing and balanced-related rehabilitation therapies and screening.
Health Conditions:
Rehabilitation Services
External Links:
Brain training at-home to improve cognition and mobility performance in adults with and without normal-hearing
Study Status: active
Institute: KITE Research Institute
Study Purpose: How can training our brain support listening and balancing performance?
Background: Age-related hearing loss is a risk factor for mobility problems and falls, as the act of listening requires brain resources, which are not unlimited. Therefore, brain resources needed for one task (i.e., listening task), may reduce the brain resources for another task (i.e., balancing) when performed at the same time. Therefore, we can train your brain using a computer or tablet at-home, by asking you to practice tasks that build the amount of brain resources you have access to. More brain resources means that you can free up some of these extra brain resources to better perform several tasks at once, such as listening, while thinking, and balancing. This type of multi-tasking is very common in everyday life.
Study Methods: Middle-aged adults with normal-hearing (45-60 years old), older adults with normal-hearing (65+ years old) and older adults with hearing loss completed a battery of vision, hearing, cognition, mobility tests followed by two listening-while balancing tasks in KITE’s StreetLab, a virtual reality simulator. We used virtual reality to try to mimic the types of realistic challenges participants might experience in their everyday lives. Then participants were then divided into two groups. One group completed 12 weeks of cognitive training at-home using a computer or tablet and the second group continued their regular routine as usual and did not complete cognitive training. Then participants came back to the lab and completed the same vision, hearing, cognition, and mobility tests as well as the two, realistic listening-while balancing tasks in the StreetLab virtual reality simulator. We were interested in determining whether the cognitive training improved their ability to manage two tasks at once (i.e., listening while balancing). This work is still ongoing.
Health Conditions:
Aging (dementia, frailty, etc.)
The Impact of Age-Related Hearing Loss on Driving
Study Status: active
Institute: KITE Research Institute
Study Purpose: Learn how age-related hearing loss impacts older drivers.
Background: Driving is hard, especially when doing more than one thing at once, like talking to someone in the car. Half of older adults may struggle more with listening because of their hearing loss. When listening is hard, it can use up the brains energy, making it tough to do other things while driving. Past studies have shown that older adults with hearing loss are more likely to get in accidents while driving. But we don't know why this happens, which is important to know so we can help older adults drive safely.
Study Methods: Older adults, both with and without hearing loss will do regular driving tasks in Canada’s best driving simulator while also listening to sentences that are like chatting in the car. Older adults will also wear a headband that measures brain activity.
Health Conditions:
Aging (dementia, frailty, etc.), Rehabilitation Services
I am an Experimental Psychologist whose research focuses on multisensory integration, perception-action coupling, self-motion perception, and locomotor rehabilitation. I have examined how the human brain integrates different sensory signals (visual, auditory, proprioceptive, vestibular) by studying several different populations (eg, younger adults, older adults and high-level athletes), and by using behavioural measures and computational models. My work makes extensive use of Virtual Reality and motion simulation technologies. I have a particular interest in understanding how multisensory processes are affected by locomotor challenges and how multisensory training tools can be used to improve performance.
- Associate Director, Academic, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
- Professor, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto
- Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
- Adjunct Faculty, Centre for Vision Research, York University
- Canada Research Chair in Multisensory Integration and Aging (Tier 2)
- Associate Scientific Director, AGE-WELL National Centres of Excellence Canada