Hello, my name is Bethany. I am currently a PhD student at the Department of Otolaryngology- Head and neck surgery, Ear & Hearing section at VU medical centre in Amsterdam.
My background consists of an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at the University of Bristol. Following this I completed a masters degree in Clinical Science (Neurosensory Science) at the University of Manchester, specialising in Audiology. I am a UK state registered Clinical Scientist in Audiology and have 4 years of NHS audiology experience prior to starting this PhD. In my spare time I enjoying playing the saxophone!
The PhD is part of the HEAR-ECO projects. The main goal of the projects is to measure listening effort and motivation in ecologically valid conditions. My focus is the psychophysiological measure cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP: a measure of sympathetic nervous system activity). I'm investigating whether PEP can be utilised as an outcome measure relating to effort mobilisation in people with hearing loss.
This project involves collaboration between VUmc, Oticon A/S, Eriksholm Research Centre, University of Nottingham and Liverpool John Moores University. Funding is provided by the MSCA-ITN European industrial doctorates.
My project is supervised by Sophia Kramer at VUmc, and is in collaboration with Dr Richter at Liverpool John Moores University.
