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School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty of Medicine

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Manohar Bance

Manohar Bance

Professor, Department of Surgery, School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Cambridge

Manohar.Bance

Contact

Manohar Bance, BSc, MSc, MBChB
Email: m.bance@dal.ca
Phone: 902-473-5975
Fax: 902-473-4345
Web: http://sense.medicine.dal.ca/

The Sensory Encoding and Neuro-Sensory Engineering (SENSE) Lab integrates Engineering and physiologic sciences in hearing (communication) and balance.

Our Group

We are interested in the vibration responses of the human middle ear in response to sounds. My work as an ear surgeon is focused on hearing reconstruction. In ear surgery, we use a variety of prostheses to reconstruct the sound transmitting function of the diseased middle ear. Our work in the laboratory measures micro-vibrations with a laser Doppler Vibrometer in cadavaric human ears, and explores the effects of various types of hearing reconstruction. It has immediate clinical applicability. We want to optimize the materials, coupling interfaces, and vibration characteristics of reconstruction prostheses, and develop active vibrating prostheses to supersede current hearing aids. We work in conjunction with Dr. Robert Funnel at McGill University in developing finite element models of the middle ear. We also have the capability to perform auditory neural recordings in animal models of hearing loss. 

Projects

Bone conduction hearing:
  • Transcranial attenuation of sound
  • 3D skull vibration patterns and relationship to hearing levels
  • Bone Anchored Hearing aids and performance parameters
  • Novel methods of skull vibration
  • Novel tranducers for bone conduction
  • Live human measurements of hearing level, skull vibration and interactions with air conduction when using bone conduction
Multisensory interactions:
  • Tactile and auditory feedback mechanisms to improve balance in subjects with bilateral vestibular loss, and other balance disorders
  • Reinforcing speech envelope signals with tactile input to enhance speaker identification and comprehension in competing multi-talker background
  • Saccadic attention in subjects with hearing loss, and improvements after auditory rehabilitation with cochlear implants, hearing reconstructive surgery, or Baha
  • Visual and auditory interactions in subjects with profound hearing loss
Novel diagnostic methods for otologic function:
  • Eustachian Tube function testing using novel sonotubometry and acoustic transmission tests
  • Middle ear reflectance measures in otologic disease
  • Laser Doppler vibrometry of living eardrums
  • Upwards spread of masking, impact of the stapedius tendon
Novel Imaging Methods:
  • Novel imaging methods for the outer, middle and inner ear using high frequency (50MHz) ultrasound
  • Novel imaging methods for the ear using OCT (optical coherence tomography)

 

Publications

Here you will find a selected list of our published articles, abstracts and posters.