Daniel Rowan

Biography

Daniel is an Associate Professor of Audiology at the University of Southampton.  

Research Interest

Sounds, through hearing, are important to people in various ways. Daniel is interested in ways that the hearing of sound helps us (e.g. for communication and spatial awareness) and hinders us (e.g. the interfering and fatiguing effects of background noise), the particular difficulties that arise with hearing impairment and how hearing can be exploited to help people with visual impairment and blindness. His research covers: How hearing can help us to localise objects that either actively produce sounds (aka sound-source localization) or can be stimulated to reflect sounds (aka echolocation). How hearing assists or interferes with our ability to function in challenging acoustic and psychological environments. For example, effects of different types of background sound on hearing, situational awareness and cognitive capabilities. The effects of hearing impairment and auditory prostheses on our hearing abilities (including speech understanding and localization). The importance of hearing to visually impaired and blind people and how the usefulness of their hearing can be improved, especially if they also have a hearing loss.