Faculty profile


Marios Fourakis

Marios Fourakis

Dept. of Communicative Disorders
466 Goodnight Hall
(608) 262-7491

fourakis@wisc.edu
Links: Department

Research Keywords

language acquisition, phonological acquisition, language disorders, phonological disorders, cross-linguistic acquisition

Affiliations

  • Department of Communicative Disorders, Associate Professor

Current Projects

  • Production and Perception of Speech Project
  • project examining the effects of the outer and middle ear transfer function on vowel recognition by persons fitted with cochlear implants
  • project developing a word recognition tests for persons with cochlear implants using a female voice instead of the standard male voice

Research Collaborators

Representative Classes

  • Com Dis 201: Speech Science
  • Com Dis 303: Speech Acoustics and Perception
  • Com Dis 816: Acoustic Phonetics

Research Statement

My research has two main objectives. One is to optimize the transfer of the information carried by the acoustic signal of speech through the processors of cochlear implants. This is done by applying our knowledge of how this information is processed in normally functioning ears to changing parameters in the cochlear implant processors. These parameters include the assignment of frequency bands to filters and the mapping of the dynamic range of speech to the dynamic range of the electrical current that is sent to the implanted electrodes. The other objective is to investigate the acoustic characteristics of speech in different languages to determine features that are shared by all languages versus those that seem to be language specific.

Selected Publications

  • Fourakis, M., Hawks, J., Holden, L., Skinner, M., & Holden, T. In press. Effect of frequency boundary assignment on speech recognition with the Nuclkeus 24 ACE speech coding strategy. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.
  • Holden, L., Skinner, M., Fourakis, M., & Holden, T. In press. Effect of increased IIDR in the Nucleus Freedom cochlear implant system. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.
  • Iliadou, V., Fourakis, M., Vakalos, A., Hawks, J., & Kaprinis, G. 2006. Word recognition test for Modern Greek. International Journal of Audiology, 45, 74-82.
  • Skinner, M., Holden, L., Fourakis, M., Hawks, J., Holden, T., Arcaroli, J., & Hyde, M. 2006. Evaluation of equivalency in two recordings of monosyllabic words. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 17, 348-364.
  • Holden, L., Vandali, A., Skinner, M., Fourakis, M., & Holden, T. (2005). Speech recognition with the ACE and Transient Emphasis Spectral Maxima (TESM) strategies in Nucleus 24 recipients. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 48, 681-701.
  • Fourakis, M., Hawks, J.W., Holden, L., Skinner, M., Holden, T, & Demorest, M. (2004). Effect of frequency boundary assignment on vowel recognition with the Nucleus 24 ACE Speech Coding Strategy. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 15, 281-299.
  • Botinis, A., Fourakis, M., Panagiotopoulou, N., & Pouli, K. (2001). Greek vowel durations and prosodic interactions. Glossologia, 13, 101-123.