Disability and Health

Can interventions using hearing aids improve cognitive wellbeing and reduce dementia risk? Hearing loss in older age is known to negatively affect socialisation, with this having a negative impact on cognitive wellbeing, increasing risk of dementia, and other negative health outcomes (e.g. Loughrey et al., 2018). Yet, while hearing aids are available on the NHS in the UK, around 20% of people issued with them don’t use them. Further, while according to the British Academy of Audiology it is estimated that over 6 million Uk residents would benefit from hearing aids, only around 2 million people use them. However, hearing loss makes socialisation difficult, with research suggesting it is a significant barrier to participation in social activity (e.g. Chaintré et al., 2023). This includes participating in social activities such as singing groups, an activity known to benefit cognitive health  (e.g. Galinha et al., 2021).

This PhD would investigate the interaction between hearing loss and social isolation and seek to provide and assess interventions in this area. Including investigating barriers around use of hearing aids and singing. This PhD will use a mixed-methods approach. Interviews/focus groups would be used to understand issues from the perspective of those experiencing hearing loss, including hearing aid users, survey data would be collected to get a broad view of the issues, and experimental methods would be employed to design and test interventions.

Supervisors: Sam Gregory and  Rebecca Vos

Many adults with chronic health conditions find fatigue among the most salient of their symptoms. There is also anecdotal evidence to suggest that fatigue and noise annoyance may interact: it can be harder to tolerate noise when fatigued, and being exposed to noise may worsen the fatigue symptoms. This project will take a participatory approach to investigate the interaction of fatigue and noise, working with adults who experience fatigue. The researcher will develop a model for the noise-fatigue process and also produce recommendations for more inclusive auditory environments.

Supervisors: Bethan Collins and Bill Davies

It is well known that blind and visually impaired people use specific auditory cues to navigate their surrounding environment. Nonetheless, there is a barrier to sport and physical activity given the difficulty to interact with a more demanding activity and environmental setting. This project will investigate whether specific auditory cues may be used in everyday sport and physical exercise for an aurally diverse population. Augmented reality strategies or sonification of the environment and the activity will be investigated. Skills and knowledge desirable for this project are experience in research for the visually impaired, knowledge of human auditory localisation, spatial audio and programming.

Supervisors: Bethan Collins and Bruno Fazenda

Which tools and environments work best, and which aspects of the acoustic environment best enable participation?

Supervisors: Bethan Collins and Bruno Fazenda

Sensorineural hearing loss in older populations is a prevalent yet complex condition that significantly impacts auditory functions. This type of hearing impairment is particularly noticeable in challenging listening environments, such as social settings with background noise, and can lead to significant difficulties in word recognition and processing (Salvi, et al., 2018). When this hearing loss occurs alongside dementia, it not only exacerbates social isolation and cognitive decline but also adversely affects cognitive reserve, a crucial defense mechanism against brain changes (Panza, et al., 2015).

With the increasing global incidence of dementia, it is vital to understand the connection between hearing loss, dementia, and isolation (Powell, 2022). Individuals with dementia notably experience a decline in social engagement (Hackett, Steptoe, Cadar, & Fancourt, 2019), underscoring the importance of strategies that address aural diversity, aural decline, and their roles in isolation. This research aims to deepen our understanding from the perspectives of people with early-stage dementia and their families on how aural diversity and hearing loss are experienced and the ways in which they contribute to the isolation experienced by this vulnerable group.

The appointed candidate will employ Grounded Theory as their principal research methodology, a practice highly regarded in the social sciences for its efficacy in deriving new theories from empirical data (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Charmaz, 2006, 2014). Essential to this research is the active involvement with key stakeholders, particularly individuals with dementia and their families. This engagement is crucial for gaining an understanding of aural diversity and the relationship it may play in isolation and loneliness in older adults with early-stage dementia.

• Hackett, R. A., Steptoe, A., Cadar, D., & Fancourt, D. (2019). Social engagement before and after dementia diagnosis in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. PLoS One, 14(8), e0220195.
• Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory. A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. London: Sage
• Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage
• Panza, F., Solfrizzi, V., Seripa, D., Imbimbo, B., Capozzo, R., Quaranta, N., Pilotto, A., Logroscino, G. (2015). Age-related hearing impairment and frailty in Alzheimer’s disease: interconnected associations and mechanisms. Front. Aging Neurosci. 7:113. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2015.00113
• Powell, D. S., Oh, E. S., Reed, N. S., Lin, F. R., & Deal, J. A. (2022). Hearing loss and cognition: what we know and where we need to go. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 13, 769405.
• Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics Of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures For Developing Grounded Theory (2nd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Salvi R, Ding D, Jiang H, Chen GD, Greco A, Manohar S, Sun W, Ralli M (2018) Hidden age-related hearing loss and hearing disorders: current knowledge and future directions. Hearing Balance Commun 16:74–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/21695717.2018.1442282

Supervisors: Jay Vickers and Sam Gregory

Sensation and emotion are directly and indirectly linked. Whilst research suggests that sound is used to increase positive emotion and decrease negative emotion, sensation and hearing are omitted from models of emotion regulation. The PhD will investigate how aural diversity is associated with the strategic use of sound to up- or downregulate emotion and therefore have implications for the mental health and wellbeing of individuals with aural diversity.

Supervisors: Robert Bendall and Duncan Williams

The therapeutic landscapes concept is one way of exploring the links between health, wellbeing and place (Gesler, 1992). A therapeutic experience within place is never guaranteed because places do not hold inherent qualities, but therapeutic experiences can happen through relational, subjective and diverse interactions with place. A therapeutic landscape experience also requires some level of agency in how the person interacts with the space in pursuit of a therapeutic experience (Bell et al., 2014; Biglin, forthcoming) and is closely aligned with theories of place-making in which every day social practices generate subjectivities that create a unique sense of place, belonging and security. This relational thinking has encouraged exploration of the ‘dynamic, contingent and ever-morphing constellations of bodies-subjects-objects-ideas-spaces that together work to enhance or destroy the therapeutic potential of the spaces in question’ (Emerson, 2019: 596). Yet, despite this relational thinking, and the common understanding that place and place-making is a multi-sensory experience, the therapeutic landscape literature is ocularcentric. However, to fully understand the therapeutic potential of place encounters beyond the visual it is key to explore how people experience, shape and respond to diverse multisensory qualities of the place encounter (Bell et al., 2023).

Forced migration and the process of seeking asylum is an embodied experience. Pre migration contexts are traumatic, impacting negatively on the body. The asylum process, described as a form of ‘slow violence’ (Darling, 2022), is characterised by a racialised loss of bodily control (Ugolotti, 2020). Thus, people seeking asylum and refugees engage in various forms of embodied place-based practice to counter, challenge and engender wellbeing whilst in new places. Including a number of sound-based practices, for example, engaging in music, song, and social dancing or even attending to the sounds and smell of cooking traditional food. These are all ways in which transnational belonging; emplaced memory, and associated forms of wellbeing are transported and practiced.

Vision is also prioritised by Western media when representing asylum and migration. Little and Vaughan-Williams (2017) summarise: as sufferers, migrants are framed through apolitical interactions and, as a threat, the migrant appears in militarised representations of dark-skinned males crossing a border. What is lost through the silencing of asylum seekers and refugees, voices and soundscapes? Furthermore, how do forces and experiences such as power and privilege, cultural, mobility, inequality and political marginalisation influence the listening and wellbeing experience within place? Using participatory-action research methods, particularly, soundscaping this PhD will explore the sound-based therapeutic sensescape experiences of asylum seekers and refugees. There is an expectation that the candidate will be involved in action-based dissemination activities.

Supervisors: Josephine Biglin and Jostine Loubser

We are all subject to the effects of sound and noise in our environments. Sound events can create stress and annoyance or promote wellbeing. This project will investigate how individual differences, context and temporal changes modulate the effect that sound has on our mood regulation, with an emphasis on aurally diverse populations. Standard subjective testing techniques (such as listening tests) will be used to collect data on subjective responses to sound events and their impact on subject mood and wellbeing. There will be a particular emphasis on modulation dependent on diverse listening styles and profiles. Desirable experience and skills for this project are prior experience in research of sound and noise effects on human response, the design of listening studies and audio signal processing.

Supervisors: Victoria McQuillan and Bruno Fazenda