Ian Wiggins

Contact

• workRopewalk House
  113 The Ropewalk
  Nottingham
  NG1 5DU
  UK
• Ian.Wiggins@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

Ian Wiggins obtained a first degree in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Warwick, followed by a master's degree in Audio Acoustics from the University of Salford. Between 2007 and 2009 he worked in London as an acoustic consultant, working with award-winning architects on prestigious national and international projects. Between 2009 and 2012 Ian was based in the Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research (MRC IHR) while he studied for his PhD at the University of Nottingham. He joined the University of Nottingham as a Research Fellow in 2012, and was promoted to his current role as Senior Research Fellow in 2017. Since 2019 Ian has led an independent research team within the Hearing Theme of the NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, focused on understanding and alleviating the challenges of listening in complex everyday environments.

Expertise Summary

Ian has expertise in psychoacoustics, neuroimaging, hearing aids, cochlear implants, spatial hearing, signal processing, multisensory integration and tinnitus. He has particular expertise in the use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a flexible, affordable, and silent method for non-invasively measuring brain activity under naturalistic listening conditions. Ian is also a competent programmer with experience of developing software for real-time audio applications.

Ian is chief investigator for the Nottingham Hearing BioResource, an ambitious, large-scale, collaborative project that aims to transform the future of audiological care.

Ian has also acted as a consultant to the World Health Organization, supporting the WHO to develop global safe-listening standards for personal music players and entertainment venues as part of the Make Listening Safe initiative (Safe listening - Wikipedia).

Recent Publications

• RACHAEL J. LAWRENCE, IAN M. WIGGINS, JESSICA C. HODGSON and DOUGLAS E.H. HARTLEY, 2021. Evaluating cortical responses to speech in children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study Hearing Research. 401, 108155
• MUSHTAQ, FAIZAH, WIGGINS, IAN M., KITTERICK, PÁDRAIG T., ANDERSON, CARLY A. and HARTLEY, DOUGLAS E. H., 2020. The Benefit of Cross-Modal Reorganization on Speech Perception in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients Revealed Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 14, 308
• ANDERSON CA, WIGGINS IM, KITTERICK PT and HARTLEY DEH, 2019. Pre-operative Brain Imaging Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Helps Predict Cochlear Implant Outcome in Deaf Adults. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO. 20(5), 511-528
• MUSHTAQ, FAIZAH AND WIGGINS, IAN M. AND KITTERICK, PÁDRAIG T. AND ANDERSON, CARLY A. AND HARTLEY, DOUGLAS E. H., 2019. Evaluating time-reversed speech and signal-correlated noise as auditory baselines for isolating speech-specific processing using fNIRS PLOS ONE. 14(7), 1-22

• View all publications

• RACHAEL J. LAWRENCE, IAN M. WIGGINS, JESSICA C. HODGSON and DOUGLAS E.H. HARTLEY, 2021. Evaluating cortical responses to speech in children: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study Hearing Research. 401, 108155
• MUSHTAQ, FAIZAH, WIGGINS, IAN M., KITTERICK, PÁDRAIG T., ANDERSON, CARLY A. and HARTLEY, DOUGLAS E. H., 2020. The Benefit of Cross-Modal Reorganization on Speech Perception in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients Revealed Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 14, 308
• ANDERSON CA, WIGGINS IM, KITTERICK PT and HARTLEY DEH, 2019. Pre-operative Brain Imaging Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Helps Predict Cochlear Implant Outcome in Deaf Adults. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO. 20(5), 511-528
• MUSHTAQ, FAIZAH AND WIGGINS, IAN M. AND KITTERICK, PÁDRAIG T. AND ANDERSON, CARLY A. AND HARTLEY, DOUGLAS E. H., 2019. Evaluating time-reversed speech and signal-correlated noise as auditory baselines for isolating speech-specific processing using fNIRS PLOS ONE. 14(7), 1-22
• ROWLAND SC, HARTLEY DEH and WIGGINS IM, 2018. Listening in Naturalistic Scenes: What Can Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Intersubject Correlation Analysis Tell Us About the Underlying Brain Activity? Trends in hearing. 22, 2331216518804116
• LAWRENCE RJ, WIGGINS IM, ANDERSON CA, DAVIES-THOMPSON J and HARTLEY DEH, 2018. Cortical correlates of speech intelligibility measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Hearing research. 370, 53-64
• WIJAYASIRI, PRAMUDI, HARTLEY, DOUGLAS E H and WIGGINS, IAN M, 2017. Brain activity underlying the recovery of meaning from degraded speech: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) study. Hearing research. 351, 55-67
• ANDERSON CA, WIGGINS IM, KITTERICK PT and HARTLEY DEH, 2017. Adaptive benefit of cross-modal plasticity following cochlear implantation in deaf adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 114(38), 10256-10261
• WIGGINS IM, ANDERSON CA, KITTERICK PT and HARTLEY DE, 2016. Speech-evoked activation in adult temporal cortex measured using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS): Are the measurements reliable? Hearing research. 339, 142-54
• LAWLER CA, WIGGINS IM, DEWEY RS and HARTLEY DEH, 2015. The use of functional near-infrared spectroscopy for measuring cortical reorganisation in cochlear implant users: a possible predictor of variable speech outcomes? Cochlear implants international. 16 Suppl 1, S30-2
• WIGGINS IM and HARTLEY DEH, 2015. A Synchrony-Dependent Influence of Sounds on Activity in Visual Cortex Measured Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). PloS one. 10(3), e0122862
• FLETCHER, M.D. and WIGGINS, I. M., 2014. Can an auditory illusion trick the brain into turning down tinnitus? Medical hypotheses. 83(1), 119-121
• WIGGINS IM and SEEBER BU, 2013. Linking dynamic-range compression across the ears can improve speech intelligibility in spatially separated noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 133(2), 1004-16
• WIGGINS IM and SEEBER BU, 2011. Dynamic-range compression affects the lateral position of sounds. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 130(6), 3939-53
• WIGGINS IM and SEEBER BU, 1. Effects of dynamic-range compression on the spatial attributes of sounds in normal-hearing listeners. Ear and hearing. 33(3), 399-410