Education

Degree	Institution	Major
B.S.	Seoul National University	Electrical Engineering
D.Sc.	Washington University	Biomedical Engineering

Post-Graduate Training

Training	Institution	Specialty
Postdoctoral	Washington Univ. Med. Sch.,	Physiology & Biophysics
Postdoctoral	Bell Laboratories	Acoustics

Awards

Name of Award/Honor	Awarding Organization
Elected Member, Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitae Sacrum (international honor society)	Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitae Sacrum
Invited Speaker, Nobel Symposium, "Cellular Mechanisms in Hearing", Karlskoga, Sweden, 1985	Nobel Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden
Elected Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America	Acoustical Society of America
Research Career Development Award, 1976-1981	National Institutes of Health

Name & Description	Category	Role	Type	Scope	Start Year	End Year
Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitae Sacrum	Professional/Scientific Organization	Member	External	International	1995	2015
Deafness and Other Comm. Disorders Programs Advisory Committee, NIDCD, NIH	Advisory Committee	Member	External	National	1994	1998
National Institutes of Health Hearing Research	Study Section	Member	External	National	1985	1986
Acoustical Society of America	Professional/Scientific Organization	Fellow	External	National	1982

Neuroscience of the auditory system; computational neuroscience of single neurons and neural systems; otolaryngology research using otoacoustic emissions; biomedical engineering.

Our research seeks to integrate systems-neuroscience experimental investigations with mathematical modeling. Neurophysiological methods include single-unit recording of neurons in the auditory system of awake animals. Modeling methods include digital computer simulations at each of the following levels: ion channels, synapses distributed over the dendrites and soma, single neurons and multi-neuron systems.

Not accepting students for Lab Rotations at this time

Lab Rotation Projects
(in collaboration with Dr. S. Kuwada)

Neural coding of auditory distance
Localizing sounds is important to humans and animals for basic functions such as escape from a threat, capturing a prey, and communication. Neural mechanisms for localizing sounds in two-dimensions, horizontal (azimuth) and vertical (elevation) angles, have been studied extensively. In contrast, mechanisms responsible for localization of distance, the third spatial dimension, are poorly understood. A stimulus of any modality (auditory, visual or tactile) presented at a close distance is particularly potent in evoking a defensive response. This suggests that the brains of humans and animals can recognize distance of a sensory stimulus (including sound) particularly when the stimulus is nearby.

The present study is designed to break a new ground by investigating how the brain processes auditory distance. Physiologically, we will measure how neurons in the rabbit midbrain encode auditory distance. The hypothesis is that neurons of the inferior colliculus (IC) convey information about auditory distance based on a ratio of direct to reverberant signal amplitudes (D/R ratio). We have recorded binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) of the rabbit in a reverberant acoustic chamber. Analysis of the BRIR acoustic signals indicate that D/R ratio systematically changes as a function of auditory distance. In this research, virtual sound fields (with a sound source at a variable location) will be created by combining BRIRs with a source signal and presented to the rabbit. Responses of single neurons in the midbrain of unanesthetized rabbits will be recorded in response to virtual sound fields. Our preliminary observations indicate that the IC neurons exhibit sensitivity to auditory distance.

The knowledge to be gained from this study should be useful in future efforts to maximize the rehabilitative potential of hearing-impaired patients so that optimal performance can be achieved in tasks involving the binaural localization system such as recognizing speech in a noisy cocktail-party setting.

Journal Articles

Conference Papers

Editorials

Title or Abstract	Type	Sponsor/Event	Date/Year	Location
Duck O. Kim, Brian B. Bishop, Shigeyuki Kuwada, Laurel H. Carney (2015). "Band-Enhanced and Band-Suppressed Rate Modulation Transfer Functions of Inferior Colliculus Neurons and a Model: Effects of Duty Cycle and Rise/Fall Slope"	Poster	Association for Research in Otolaryngology	2015	Baltimore, MD
Duck O. Kim, Laurel Carney, Brian Bishop, and Shigeyuki Kuwada "A mechanism for neural coding of sound-source distance: Experiment and model"	Poster	Association for Research in Otolaryngology	2014	San Diego, CA
Kim DO, Bishop BB, Kuwada S (2013). Acoustic modulation transfer functions for human listeners in anechoic and reverberant environments.	Poster	Asssociation for Research in Otolaryngology	2013	Baltimore, MD
Kuwad S, Bishop B, Kim DO (2013) Effect of reverberation on neural coding of sound location (where) and pattern (what) in the inferior colliculus	Poster	Association for Research in Orolaryngology	2013	Baltimore, MD
Duck O. Kim, Brian Bishop, Shigeyuki Kuwada "Auditory Midbrain Neurons` Coding of Location (“Where”) and Content (“What”) of Sounds in Reverberant Environments"	Lecture	International Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies	2013	Seoul, South Korea
Kim D, Kuwada S, Bishop B, Zahorik P (2012). Acoustic modulation transfer functions for human listeners in anechoic and reverberant environments.	Poster	Association for Research in Otolaryngology	2012	San Diego, CA
Kuwada S, Zahorik, P, Bishop B, Kim DO (2012). What and Where Processing in the Inferior Colliculus Symposium	Talk	Association for Research in Otolaryngology	2012	San Diego, CA
Cellular Mechanisms in Hearing	Lecture	Nobel Symposium	1985	Karlskoga, Sweden