Kevin Sitek

Kevin Sitek
Northwestern University | NU · Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

PhD

About

21
Publications
3,037
Reads
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281
Citations
Introduction
Investigating the human subcortical auditory system
Additional affiliations
August 2019 - January 2021
Baylor College of Medicine
Position
  • PostDoc Position
Description
  • Postdoc with Dr. David Ress studying multisensory processing in the human midbrain
February 2021 - June 2023
University of Pittsburgh
Position
  • Research Scientist
April 2014 - August 2019
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Position
  • PhD Student
Description
  • PhD research with Dr. Satra Ghosh investigating brain mechanisms underlying speech and hearing, particularly in the subcortical auditory system
Education
August 2013 - August 2019
Harvard University
Field of study
  • Speech & Hearing Bioscience & Technology
August 2007 - May 2011
University of California, Berkeley
Field of study
  • Linguistics, Cognitive Science

Publications

Publications (21)
Article
Full-text available
Studying the human subcortical auditory system non-invasively is challenging due to its small, densely packed structures deep within the brain. Additionally, the elaborate three-dimensional (3-D) structure of the system can be difficult to understand based on currently available 2-D schematics and animal models. We addressed these issues using a co...
Article
Full-text available
Persistent developmental stuttering is characterized by speech production disfluency and affects 1% of adults. The degree of impairment varies widely across individuals and the neural mechanisms underlying the disorder and this variability remain poorly understood. Here we elucidate compensatory mechanisms related to this variability in impairment...
Article
Full-text available
As we talk, we unconsciously adjust our speech to ensure it sounds the way we intend it to sound. However, because speech production involves complex motor planning and execution, no two utterances of the same sound will be exactly the same. Here, we show that auditory cortex is sensitive to natural variations in self-produced speech from utterance...
Preprint
Since 1997, the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) Annual Meeting has provided a critical platform for sharing the latest developments in brain mapping. For over a decade OHBM has recorded presentations and made them accessible to its members through the OnDemand platform. As of 2024, this content is now openly and freely accessible to bra...
Article
Full-text available
The auditory system comprises multiple subcortical brain structures that process and refine incoming acoustic signals along the primary auditory pathway. Due to technical limitations of imaging small structures deep inside the brain, most of our knowledge of the subcortical auditory system is based on research in animal models using invasive method...
Article
Full-text available
Perception integrates both sensory inputs and internal models of the environment. In the auditory domain, predictions play a critical role because of the temporal nature of sounds. However, the precise contribution of cortical and subcortical structures in these processes and their interaction remain unclear. It is also unclear whether these brain...
Article
Full-text available
OHBM Brainhack 2022 took place in June 2022. The first hybrid OHBM hackathon, it had an in-person component taking place in Glasgow and three hubs around the globe to improve inclusivity and fit as many timezones as possible. In the buzzing setting of the Queen Margaret Union and of the virtual platform, 23 projects were presented after development...
Preprint
Full-text available
The central auditory system is comprised of multiple subcortical brain structures that hierarchically process and refine incoming acoustic signals along the primary auditory pathway. Due to the technical limitations of imaging small structures deep inside the brain, most of our knowledge of the subcortical auditory system is based on research in an...
Preprint
Full-text available
Auditory learning critically depends on sensory, decisional, and reward-based processes that are supported by the dorsal striatum. Auditory corticostriatal connections have been well-characterized in animal models including non-human primates, where primary auditory cortex preferentially connects to putamen, and caudate head receives most of its in...
Preprint
Full-text available
Understanding the dynamics of functional brain connectivity patterns using noninvasive neuroimaging techniques is an important focus in human neuroscience. Vector autoregressive (VAR) processes and Granger causality analysis (GCA) have been extensively used to examine functional brain connectivity. While high-resolution neuroimage data are routinel...
Article
Full-text available
This mini review is aimed at a clinician-scientist seeking to understand the role of oscillations in neural processing and their functional relevance in speech and music perception. We present an overview of neural oscillations, methods used to study them, and their functional relevance with respect to music processing, aging, hearing loss, and dis...
Article
Full-text available
Inferior colliculus (IC) is an obligatory station along the ascending auditory pathway that also has a high degree of top-down convergence via efferent pathways, making it a major computational hub. Animal models have attributed critical roles for the IC in in mediating auditory plasticity, egocentric selection, and noise exclusion. IC contains mul...
Article
Full-text available
Standard magnetic resonance imaging approaches offer high-resolution but indirect measures of neural activity, limiting understanding of the physiological processes associated with imaging findings. Here, we used calibrated functional magnetic resonance imaging during the resting state to recover low-frequency fluctuations of the cerebral metabolic...
Preprint
Echo-Planar Imaging (EPI) allows very fast acquisition of whole-brain data, which enables standard functional & diffusion MRI (f/dMRI). However, EPI is notably sensitive to variations in the base B0 field. Small deviations in parts-per-million from the nominal B0 caused by steps in magnetic susceptibility (tissue interfaces) introduce misplacements...
Article
Full-text available
Dorsal human midbrain contains two nuclei with clear laminar organization, the superior and inferior colliculi. These nuclei extend in depth between the superficial dorsal surface of midbrain and a deep midbrain nucleus, the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG). The PAG, in turn, surrounds the cerebral aqueduct (CA). This study examined the use of two...
Preprint
Full-text available
Dorsal human midbrain contains two nuclei with clear laminar organization, the superior and inferior colliculi. These nuclei extend in depth between the superficial dorsal surface of midbrain and a deep midbrain nucleus, the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG). The PAG, in turn, surrounds the cerebral aqueduct (CA). This study examined the use of two...
Preprint
Full-text available
***[This paper is now published in eLife journal. See https://elifesciences.org/articles/48932]*** Studying the human subcortical auditory system non-invasively is challenging due to its small structures deep within the brain. Additionally, the elaborate three-dimensional (3-D) structure of the system can be diZcult to understand based on currentl...
Article
Full-text available
Background One of the most reported neural features of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the alteration of multiple long-range white matter fiber tracts, as assessed by diffusion-weighted imaging and indexed by reduced fractional anisotropy (FA). Recent methodological advances, however, have shown that this same pattern of reduced FA may be an arti...
Article
Objective The radiologic evaluation of patients with hearing loss includes computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to highlight temporal bone and cochlear nerve anatomy. The central auditory pathways are often not studied for routine clinical evaluation. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an emerging MRI-based modality that can reve...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Duplex perception experiments explore how a speech unit is processed simultaneously as a speech and non-speech sound. Two adjacent speech sounds do not need to be heard in the same ear for phonetic context effects to be active. Our experiments combine these paradigms by presenting two syllables dichotically with formants of the target syllable pres...

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