Eric W. Healy, Professor and Joan N. Huber Fellow, Department of Speech and Hearing Science, was awarded a $1.9 million NIH grant to study the primary complaint of people with hearing loss -- limited speech understanding in background noise.  The current award adds to an existing $1.8 million NIH award that is collaborative with Computer Science and Engineering.  It will further our basic understanding of how the auditory system extracts speech from noise and how these mechanisms are affected by hearing impairment.  Healy's team will also partner with industry to implement their noise-reduction technology into the leading bionic hearing prosthetic.