Biomedical engineering and signal processing; hearing aids and cochlear implants; auditory neurophysiology and psychophysics; digital speech processing; stochastic and nonlinear systems
The main interests of my lab are in the areas of biomedical engineering and signal processing applied to the auditory system. The primary application is to use engineering methods to study and model the physiological mechanisms that contribute to hearing loss and tinnitus and to improve assistive devices for the hearing impaired such as hearing aids and cochlear implants and to treat tinnitus.
Ongoing research projects include:
Computational modelling of sound processing by the mammalian auditory system
Physiologically-based prediction of speech intelligibility and quality
Characterizing and modelling noise-induced, age-related, and genetic hearing loss
Electrophysiological and behavioural measures of tinnitus and hearing loss
Modelling of cochlear implant stimulation of the auditory nerve
Model-based evaluation and design of hearing aids and cochlear implants
Behavioural, electrophysiological and acoustical evaluation of hearing aids in complex listening environments, including speech and music perception
3D acoustical signal processing
Did you know… A paper written by Dr. Ian Bruce, Laurel Carney (Adjunct Professor) and Muhammad Zilany (a former PhD student) is the most-cited paper in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America over the 20 month period from January 2015 to August 2016.
Additional roles:
Associate Member of School of Computational Science and Engineering
Associate Director of the LIVELab.
Associate Member of the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour.
Selected
Boulet, J., White, M., and Bruce, I. C. (2016) Temporal considerations for stimulating spiral ganglion neurons with cochlear implants JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY 17(1):1–17
Zilany, M. S. A., Bruce, I. C., and Carney, L. H. (2014) Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 135:283–286 JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 135:283–286
Recognized as the most cited article in JASA for the period Jan. 2015–Aug. 2016
Tabibi, S., Boulet, J., Dillier, N., and Bruce, I. C. (2021)
Phenomenological model of auditory nerve population responses to cochlear implant stimulation JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE METHODS 358:109212
Bruce, I. C., Erfani, Y., and Zilany, M. S. A. (2018) A phenomenological model of the synapse between the inner hair cell and auditory nerve: Implications of limited neurotransmitter release sites HEARING RESEARCH 360:40–54
Wirtzfeld, M. R., Ibrahim, R. A., and Bruce, I. C. (2017) Predictions of speech chimaera intelligibility using auditory nerve mean-rate and spike-timing neural cues JOURNAL OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN OTOLARYNGOLOGY 18(5):687–710
Recent Tabibi, S., Boulet, J., Dillier, N., and Bruce, I. C. (2021). “Phenomenological model of auditory nerve population responses to cochlear implant stimulation,” Journal of Neuroscience Methods 358:109212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2021.109212
Nagathil, A., Göbel, F., Nelus, A., and Bruce, I. C. (2021). “Computationally efficient DNN-based approximation of an auditory model for applications in speech processing,” in Proceedings of 46th IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP2021), IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, pp. 301– 305. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICASSP39728.2021.9413993
Tabibi, S., Kegel, A., Lai, W. K., Bruce, I. C., and Dillier, N. (2019). “Measuring temporal response properties of auditory nerve fibers in cochlear implant recipients,” Hearing Research 380:187–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2019.07.004
Koning, R., Bruce, I. C., Denys, S., and Wouters, J. (2018). “Perceptual and model-based evaluation of ideal time-frequency noise reduction in hearing impaired listeners,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering 26(3):687–697. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2018.2794557
Bruce, I. C., Erfani, Y., and Zilany, M. S. A. (2018). “A phenomenological model of the synapse between the inner hair cell and auditory nerve: Implications of limited neurotransmitter release sites,” Hearing Research 360:40–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2017.12.016
Roberts, L. E., Bruce, I. C., and Ganz Sanchez, T. (2018). “Tinnitus and hyperacusis: relationship, mechanisms, and initiating conditions,” in Hyperacusis and Disorders of Sound Intolerance: Clinical and Research Perspectives, eds. M. Fagelson and D. M. Baguley, Plural Publishing, Inc., San Diego, chapter 6. https://www.pluralpublishing.com/publications/hyperacusis-and-disorders-of-sound-intolerance-clinical-and-research-perspectives
Paul, B. T., Waheed, S., Bruce, I. C., and Roberts, L. E. (2017). “Subcortical amplitude modulation encoding deficits suggest evidence of cochlear synaptopathy in normal-hearing 18–19 year olds with higher lifetime noise exposure,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142(5):EL434–440. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5009603
Wirtzfeld, M. R., Pourmand, N., Parsa, V., and Bruce, I. C. (2017). “Predicting the quality of enhanced wideband speech with a cochlear model,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142(3):EL319–325. http://doi.org/10.1121/1.5003785
Wirtzfeld, M. R., Ibrahim, R. A., and Bruce, I. C. (2017). “Predictions of speech chimaera intelligibility using auditory nerve mean-rate and spike-timing neural cues,” Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 18(5):687–710. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-017-0627-7
Bruce, I. C. (2017). “Physiologically based predictors of speech intelligibility,” Acoustics Today Spring 2017 Issue 13(1):28–35. https://acousticstoday.org/issues/2017AT/2017Spring/#p=30
Boulet, J., and Bruce, I. C. (2017). “Predictions of the contribution of HCN half-maximal activation potential heterogeneity to variability in intrinsic adaptation of spiral ganglion neurons,” Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 18(2):301–322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10162-016-0605-5
Moncada-Torres, A., van Wieringen, A., Bruce, I. C., Wouters, J., and Francart, T. (2017). “Predicting phoneme and word recognition in noise using a computational model of the auditory periphery,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 141:300–312. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4973569
Paul, B. T., Bruce, I. C., and Roberts, L. E. (2017). “Evidence that hidden hearing loss underlies amplitude modulation encoding deficits in individuals with and without tinnitus,” Hearing Research 344:170–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2016.11.010
Seeber, B. U. and Bruce, I. C. (2016). “The history and future of neural modeling for cochlear implants,” Network: Computation in Neural System 27(2–3):53–66, Special Issue on “Computational modelling of cochlear implants”. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0954898X.2016.1223365
Takanen, M., Bruce, I. C., and Seeber, B. U. (2016). “Phenomenological modelling of electrically stimulated auditory nerve fibers: A review,” Network: Computation in Neural System 27(2–3):157–185, Special Issue on “Computational modelling of cochlear implants”. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0954898X.2016.1219412
Boulet, J., White, M., and Bruce, I. C. (2016). “Temporal considerations for stimulating spiral ganglion neurons with cochlear implants,” Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 17(1):1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10162-015-0545-5
Ian C. Bruce was born in Bendigo, Vic., Australia, in 1969. He received the B.E. (electrical and electronic) degree from The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Vic., in 1991, and the Ph.D. degree from the Department of Otolaryngology, The University of Melbourne.
From 1993 to 1994, he was a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Department of Bioelectricity and Magnetism, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria. He was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, from 1998 to 2001. Since 2002, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, currently at the rank of Professor. His research interests include auditory modeling, hearing aids, cochlear implants, tinnitus, neural coding of speech, digital speech processing, and stochastic processes. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.
Dr. Bruce is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Member of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, and a Registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.
B.Eng. ; Ph.D. (University of Melbourne, Australia)
Related Courses
3 unit(s) Linear systems, signals, input-output relations of linear systems; discrete and continuous time systems; transfer functions, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms; sampling theory; stability. Three lectures, one tutorial (one hour); first term Prerequisite(s): MATH 2Z03 and registration in the Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences (IBEHS) program Antirequisite(s): SFWRENG 3MX3, ELECENG 3TP3, ENGPHYS 3W04
Instructor
Dr. Ian Bruce
This course provides an introduction to advanced concepts and methodologies for the analysis, modeling, synthesis and coding of speech and audio, such as: pole-zero speech models, sinusoidal analysis/synthesis, filter-bank analysis/synthesis, homomorphic signal processing, and speech coding. These approaches are fundamental to a wide range of modern applications of speech and audio processing. Students will learn how to use MATLAB for the analysis and manipulation of speech and audio and gain practical experience in the design and implementation of speech and audio processing algorithms.
