We are surrounded by auditory objects, that is, sounds that can be assigned to a certain acoustic source, such as a person talking, a car driving by or a bird singing. The moment-to-moment auditory environment comprising such overlapping auditory objects form an auditory scene. My research aims to understand the neural processes involved in parsing auditory scenes into their constituent auditory objects, which enables us to focus on one auditory object (e.g. the person talking to you) while ignoring the auditory background. I also want to understand how our brain represents, recognises and learns new auditory object categories to make sense of a continuously evolving auditory environment. This research is pertinent as it is becoming apparent that certain auditory syndromes involve either external (sound sensitivity) or internal (tinnitus) sound objects that manage to preoccupy our mind to the detriment of wellbeing.
Since 2021, I have worked as a PI on a project on neural mechanisms of auditory object perception. The project is funded by the Research Council of Finland at the Department of Psychology of the University of Helsinki. Since 2023 I have been leading the research group Attentional Multimodal Networks at our department. In addition to research on auditory object perception we study how the human brain functions in various behavioural and cognitive contexts using neuroimaging tools, such as fMRI and EEG in combination with computational modelling. During my research career I have worked in several different universities in both Finland (Aalto University, Tampere University and Turku University) and abroad (Newcastle University and Georgetown University). Currently I am working on ways to integrate different neuroimaging methods with naturalistic experimental designs to depict how behaviourally contingent neural representations evolve in human neural networks.