Sound enters the ear and travels through a complex biological pathway to reach the brain. The structure and function of that pathway determine how well someone can hear, and damage to that pathway can cause hearing loss or other auditory perceptual impairments. However, normal changes in the auditory pathway occur from birth through older adulthood. Prof. DiNino studies how biological changes across the human lifespan influence sound perception and interact with hearing impairments. In particular, she focuses on processes that support perception of speech, such as one’s ability to attend to a certain voice or perceive various acoustic cues