About

Samira Anderson is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland, having joined the faculty in January 2013. She has a background in clinical audiology and specializes in studying the neural processing of speech across the lifespan. Her research focuses on how processing impairments affect language acquisition in infants and speech perception in older adults. Anderson primarily uses electrophysiology as her research tool, complemented by perceptual and imaging assessment techniques in collaboration with other faculty. She is a faculty member of the Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science, the Center for Comparative and Evolutionary Biology of Hearing, and the Language Science Center. Her research interests include the neurobiology of speech perception, learning-associated neural plasticity, aging, hearing loss, auditory development, and the neural processing of auditory input across the lifespan. Anderson's lab investigates speech sound differentiation development in infants, the relationship between subcortical speech encoding and language development, and the effects of aging and hearing loss on speech understanding in complex environments. Her work aims to improve methods for early identification and treatment of language-based learning impairments and to develop better rehabilitation approaches for older adults with hearing difficulties. Anderson is dedicated to advancing audiology and hearing science through research, teaching, and mentoring, with a focus on translating scientific findings into improved clinical practices.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Medicine
• Audiology
• Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Speech recognition
• Cognitive psychology
• Optics
• Telecommunications
• Acoustics
• Physics

Selected publications

• Neural and Behavioral Changes in Older Adults from Auditory-Cognitive Training

  2025-07-14 · 1 citations

  article

  Speech perception in noisy environments is a common challenge among older adults, even for those with clinically normal hearing. Cognitive decline may be one of the contributing factors, and, as such, auditory-cognitive training may enhance speech perception in these conditions. This study aims to determine if auditory-cognitive training can improve speech-in-noise listening in normal-hearing, older adults using neural and behavioral measures, supplemented with comparisons across younger and older adults. Neural responses were obtained using magnetoencephalography (MEG) while participants listened to long, narrative passages (60 s) under four noise conditions. Neural measures employed reverse correlation using encoding and decoding models, via the temporal response function (TRF) framework, to predict neural responses and reconstruct stimulus features, respectively, with the boosting algorithm to enforce sparsity. Behavioral measures, such as working memory (reading span; RSPAN), speech perception in noise (SPIN), and nonlinguistic auditory stream segregation (stochastic figure-ground; SFG) showed improvement post-training, along with neural and subjective ratings for listening effort. Additionally, auditory-cognitive training may enhance the neural contrast between the selectively attended and unattended stimulus reconstructions, and pre-training SFG performance may predict the extent of this neuroplasticity change. These results provide promising, additional insight into the effects of auditory-cognitive training, both perceptually and neurally.

  PublisherDOI

• Neural and Behavioral Changes in Older Adults from Auditory-Cognitive Training

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2025-04-07 · 3 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Speech perception in noisy environments is a common challenge among older adults, even for those with clinically normal hearing. Cognitive decline may be one of the contributing factors, and, as such, auditory-cognitive training may enhance speech perception in these conditions. This study aims to determine if auditory-cognitive training can improve speech-in-noise listening in normal-hearing, older adults using neural and behavioral measures, supplemented with comparisons across younger and older adults. Neural responses were obtained using magnetoencephalography (MEG) while participants listened to long, narrative passages (60 s) under four noise conditions. Neural measures employed reverse correlation using encoding and decoding models, via the temporal response function (TRF) framework, to predict neural responses and reconstruct stimulus features, respectively, with the boosting algorithm to enforce sparsity. Behavioral measures, such as working memory (reading span; RSPAN), speech perception in noise (SPIN), and nonlinguistic auditory stream segregation (stochastic figure-ground; SFG) showed improvement post-training, along with neural and subjective ratings for listening effort. Additionally, auditory-cognitive training may enhance the neural contrast between the selectively attended and unattended stimulus reconstructions, and pre-training SFG performance may predict the extent of this neuroplasticity change. These results provide promising, additional insight into the effects of auditory-cognitive training, both perceptually and neurally.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Impacts of Two Adaptive Auditory–Cognitive Training Paradigms on Listening to Competing Talkers

  Seminars in Hearing · 2025-05-01 · 1 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Speech intelligibility among competing talkers becomes more difficult with age, even for older adults with clinically normal hearing. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the implementation of auditory-cognitive training to improve speech-in-noise recognition performance, particularly for older adults. In this study, we implemented two levels of cognitive demand in an adaptive auditory-cognitive training program that used a competing-speaker paradigm. Older adults with normal to near-normal hearing thresholds were assessed on training performance (at the individual and group level), self-reported training strategies, and far-transfer learning in a speech-perception-in-noise task. Training performance analysis revealed that some older adults, particularly those in the more demanding training, performed poorly during the auditory-cognitive training itself. Some participants in this group reported disengagement, potentially due to the low level of those individuals' self-reported satisfaction with engaging in challenging tasks in daily life. Despite these challenges, however, both groups generally improved in the far-transfer learning assessment, though there was variation among participants. Our results suggest that too-high levels of cognitive demand within the auditory-cognitive training may limit some aspects of training outcomes for speech perception in noise; however, higher cognitive demand may be beneficial for those who enjoy challenging tasks.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Attention Mobilization as a Modulator of Listening Effort: Evidence From Pupillometry

  Trends in Hearing · 2024-01-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  Listening to speech in noise can require substantial mental effort, even among younger normal-hearing adults. The task-evoked pupil response (TEPR) has been shown to track the increased effort exerted to recognize words or sentences in increasing noise. However, few studies have examined the trajectory of listening effort across longer, more natural, stretches of speech, or the extent to which expectations about upcoming listening difficulty modulate the TEPR. Seventeen younger normal-hearing adults listened to 60-s-long audiobook passages, repeated three times in a row, at two different signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) while pupil size was recorded. There was a significant interaction between SNR, repetition, and baseline pupil size on sustained listening effort. At lower baseline pupil sizes, potentially reflecting lower attention mobilization, TEPRs were more sustained in the harder SNR condition, particularly when attention mobilization remained low by the third presentation. At intermediate baseline pupil sizes, differences between conditions were largely absent, suggesting these listeners had optimally mobilized their attention for both SNRs. Lastly, at higher baseline pupil sizes, potentially reflecting overmobilization of attention, the effect of SNR was initially reversed for the second and third presentations: participants initially appeared to disengage in the harder SNR condition, resulting in reduced TEPRs that recovered in the second half of the story. Together, these findings suggest that the unfolding of listening effort over time depends critically on the extent to which individuals have successfully mobilized their attention in anticipation of difficult listening conditions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A phase 2a study investigating the effects of ritlecitinib on brainstem auditory evoked potentials and intraepidermal nerve fiber histology in adults with alopecia areata

  Pharmacology Research & Perspectives · 2024-07-05 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Reversible axonal swelling and brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) changes were observed in standard chronic (9-month) toxicology studies in dogs treated with ritlecitinib, an oral Janus kinase 3/tyrosine kinase expressed in hepatocellular carcinoma family kinase inhibitor, at exposures higher than the approved 50-mg human dose. To evaluate the clinical relevance of the dog toxicity finding, this phase 2a, double-blind study assessed BAEP changes and intraepidermal nerve fiber (IENF) histology in adults with alopecia areata treated with ritlecitinib. Patients were randomized to receive oral ritlecitinib 50 mg once daily (QD) with a 4-week loading dose of 200 mg QD or placebo for 9 months (placebo-controlled phase); they then entered the active-therapy extension and received ritlecitinib 50 mg QD (with a 4-week loading dose of 200 mg in patients switching from placebo). Among the 71 patients, no notable mean differences in change from baseline (CFB) in Waves I-V interwave latency (primary outcome) or Wave V amplitude on BAEP at a stimulus intensity of 80 dB nHL were observed in the ritlecitinib or placebo group at Month 9, with no notable differences in interwave latency or Wave V amplitude between groups. The CFB in mean or median IENF density and in percentage of IENFs with axonal swellings was minimal and similar between groups at Month 9. Ritlecitinib treatment was also not associated with an imbalanced incidence of neurological and audiological adverse events. These results provide evidence that the BAEP and axonal swelling finding in dogs are not clinically relevant in humans.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Increased listening effort and decreased speech discrimination at high presentation sound levels in acoustic hearing listeners and cochlear implant users

  bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2024-09-21

  preprintOpen access

  The sounds we experience in our everyday communication can vary greatly in terms of level and background noise depending on the environment. Paradoxically, increasing the sound intensity may lead to worsened speech understanding, especially in noise. This is known as the "Rollover" phenomenon. There have been limited studies on rollover and how it is experienced differentially across aging groups, for those with and without hearing loss, as well as cochlear implant (CI) users. There is also mounting evidence that listening effort plays an important role in challenging listening conditions and can be directly quantified with objective measures such as pupil dilation. We found that listening effort was modulated by sound level and that rollover occurred primarily in the presence of background noise. The effect on listening effort was exacerbated by age and hearing loss in acoustic listeners, with greatest effect in older listeners with hearing loss, while there was no effect in CI users. The age- and hearing-dependent effects of rollover highlight the potential negative impact of amplification to high sound levels and therefore has implications for effective treatment of age-related hearing loss.

  PublisherDOI

• Spectral degradation and carrier sentences increase age-related temporal processing deficits in a cue-specific manner

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024-06-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  Advancing age is associated with decreased sensitivity to temporal cues in word segments, particularly when target words follow non-informative carrier sentences or are spectrally degraded (e.g., vocoded to simulate cochlear-implant stimulation). This study investigated whether age, carrier sentences, and spectral degradation interacted to cause undue difficulty in processing speech temporal cues. Younger and older adults with normal hearing performed phonemic categorization tasks on two continua: a Buy/Pie contrast with voice onset time changes for the word-initial stop and a Dish/Ditch contrast with silent interval changes preceding the word-final fricative. Target words were presented in isolation or after non-informative carrier sentences, and were unprocessed or degraded via sinewave vocoding (2, 4, and 8 channels). Older listeners exhibited reduced sensitivity to both temporal cues compared to younger listeners. For the Buy/Pie contrast, age, carrier sentence, and spectral degradation interacted such that the largest age effects were seen for unprocessed words in the carrier sentence condition. This pattern differed from the Dish/Ditch contrast, where reducing spectral resolution exaggerated age effects, but introducing carrier sentences largely left the patterns unchanged. These results suggest that certain temporal cues are particularly susceptible to aging when placed in sentences, likely contributing to the difficulties of older cochlear-implant users in everyday environments.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Listening effort mitigates rollover effects on speech-in-noise perception

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2024-03-01

  article

  Increasing the sound intensity may lead to worse speech understanding, especially in noise. This is known as the “Rollover” phenomenon. There is mounting evidence that listening effort plays an important role in challenging listening conditions and can be directly quantified with objective measures such as pupil dilation. However, there is limited understanding of how listening effort relates to rollover in speech understanding. We hypothesized that listening effort plays an essential role in mitigating rollover effects to differential extents across age and hearing status. We recruited across the adult lifespan (N = 50, 20–83 years) with different hearing statuses in acoustic listeners and cochlear implant users to perform a speech discrimination task. Minimal word pairs were presented both in quiet and in 0 dB SNR babble noise, ranging from 35–85 dB SPL. Pupil area was tracked simultaneously with behavioral responses during the task. We found that normal-hearing listeners are fully able to utilize effort contributions to minimize rollover effects between in quiet and in noise conditions, with diminishing benefit as a function of age and increased hearing loss. The results of this project could broadly influence how to design future hearing devices and interventions that maximize hearing abilities for those affected by hearing loss.

  PublisherDOI

• Aging effects on the neural representation and perception of consonant transition cues

  Hearing Research · 2024-05-17

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Demographic differences in hearing thresholds compared to suprathreshold measures

  2023-05-05

  preprintOpen access

  African American race and female sex are identified as protective for hearing sensitivity. The mechanisms supporting this protection are not fully understood and it is unclear whether similar mechanisms explain suprathreshold processing. Using robust linear and linear mixed-effect models, the best predictors of hearing sensitivity were contrasted with the best predictors of suprathreshold measures in younger and older listeners. The listeners (N=121) had thresholds <25 dB HL up to 3 kHz. Self-identified race (African American or Caucasian) and sex were hypothesized to moderate outcomes on hearing sensitivity, time-compressed speech recognition, pulse rate discrimination and auditory brainstem responses. Support for the hypotheses occurred if race and sex were among the predictors resulting in the models with lowest mean absolute error. The hypotheses were partially supported. However, confounding factors included 3 kHz hearing sensitivity (which moderated the association between sex, race, and Wave V latency) and episodic memory (which moderated the association between processing speed, sex, and pulse rate discrimination). Moreover, the hearing sensitivity benefit associated with African American listeners did not extend to suprathreshold measures. The biological mechanisms associated with race and sex, thought to underly differences in hearing sensitivity, may be inadequate to explain differences in auditory temporal processing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Age-related changes in neural encoding and perception of temporal speech cues

  NIH · $436k · 2016–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Nina Kraus

  Northwestern University

  69 shared

• Alessandro Presacco

  Children's National

  29 shared

• Matthew J. Goupell

  University of Maryland, College Park

  27 shared

• Travis White‐Schwoch

  Northwestern University

  21 shared

• Jonathan Z. Simon

  University of Maryland, College Park

  19 shared

• Alexandra Parbery‐Clark

  Swedish Medical Center

  16 shared

• Sandra Gordon‐Salant

  University of Maryland, College Park

  15 shared

• Stefanie E. Kuchinsky

  University of Maryland, College Park

  9 shared

Labs

• Hearing and Speech Sciences Department, University of MarylandPI

Education

• Ph.D., Communication Sciences and Disorders

  Northwestern University

  2012