Dr Adam Carlton

The feedback the mammalian inner ear receives from the brainstem is perhaps the most poorly understood aspect of the auditory system. Studies that completely destroy this feedback have shown that it is responsible for fine-tuning the inner ear's activity at rest and during hearing to assist with noise protection, hearing in noisy environments, and sound localisation.

The aim of my research is to understand the actual activity of all of aspects of this feedback to the inner ear and how it can adapt during an entire lifetime. I hope to achieve this with electrophysiology, immunolabelling, and biochemistry techniques using the mammalian brainstem.