RIVERSIDE, CA - Indian American neuroscientist Khaleel Rezak has been awarded $ 866,902 grant for research on brain processes that could lead to therapies for age-related hearing problems.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Rezak the five-year grant under its Faculty Early Career Development Program for further research on his projects. Rezak’s research on how the brain processes everyday sounds may lead to therapies for age-related hearing problems and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), an autism spectrum disorder.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Rezak the five-year grant under its Faculty Early Career Development Program for further research on his projects. Rezak’s research on how the brain processes everyday sounds may lead to therapies for age-related hearing problems and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), an autism spectrum disorder.
Originally from Chennai, Razak is an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside (UCR). Age-related hearing loss is the most preventable hearing-related problem in the world, he said. “People develop problems with processing rapid changes in sound frequency,” he added. His lab at UCR focuses on how the brain processes behaviorally relevant sounds and how those mechanisms are altered by developmental experience, disease and ageing. “It’s a processing deficit that accumulates with age, a declining ability to distinguish, for example, the difference between ‘bah’ and ‘dah’,” he said.