Neurology

Einat Liebenthal, D. Sc.

Associate Professor of Neurology
Director, Speech Imaging Lab

Specialty: Adult Neurology

Sub-Specialty:

• Speech Perception
• Neuroimaging

Education:

• Biology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 1990
• M. Sc Neurophysiology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, 1993
• D. Sc Neurophysiology, Technion I.I.T., Haifa, Israel, 1997

Training:

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY, NY.  H.G. Jr. Vaughan, M.D. and D. Kurtzberg, Ph.D.; advisors: 1997-1999
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, J.R. Binder, M.D.; advisor: 1999-2000.

Societies:

• Cognitive Neuroscience Society, 1999- present
• Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 1999- present
• Acoustical Society of America, 1999- present
• International Electric Response Audiometry Study Group, 1996-2000
• Organization for Human Brain Mapping, 1999- present

Awards/Honors:

• Israel Society for Clinical Neurophysiology Prize for best presentation, 1995
• King Solomon's Prize for best paper in Neuroethology, Hebrew University, 1994
• Julius and Dorothea Harband Doctoral Fellowship, Technion, I.I.T, 1993-1997
• B.Sc. Biology, Cum Laude, 1990

Brief Clinical/Research Interest Statement:

Research in the Speech Imaging Lab focuses on the neurophysiological basis of speech perception and in particular on the neural mechanisms underlying the representation of sublexical phonemic information in the temporal cortex of healthy adults. Phonemic perception emerges when the acoustically rich, diverse and continuously varying speech signals are represented as a limited set of discrete, learned phonemic categories. This abstraction process results in relatively better discrimination across than within phoneme categories, a phenomenon well-known as categorical perception of speech. A main research aim is to determine whether the characteristic pattern of increased response in left ventral temporal regions during speech perception is related to the categorical nature of this process rather than strictly to its relevance for language.

Current and Previous Grants

• 2001, "Simultaneous FMRI/ERP Measures of Speech Perception," NIDCD R21 DC04880 (E. Liebenthal, P.I.). (2001-2003). 50% effort, Principal Investigator.
• 2000, "Functional MRI of Human Brain Language Systems," NINDS RO1 NS33576 (J.R. Binder, P.I.). (2000-2005). 50% effort; Co- Investigator.
• 1997, "Electrophysiological manifestations of phonetic processing deficits," NIDCD Center Grant (R Ruben, Director, D. Kurtzberg, P.I.). Award Period: 1997-2002. $100% effort, Research Associate.
• 1996, "Electrophysiology of echoic sound perception in humans," (H. Pratt, P.I). Agency: Israel Science Foundation. Award period: 1996-1999. 100% effort, Co-Investigator.

Publications:

1. Liebenthal E, Binder JR, Spitzer SM, Possing ET, Medler DA (2005). Neural substrates of phonemic perception. Cerebral Cortex, 15 (10):1621-1631.
2. Liebenthal E, Ellingson ML, Spanaki MV, Prieto TE, Ropella KM, Binder JR (2003) Simultaneous ERP and FMRI of the auditory cortex in a passive oddball paradigm. Neuroimage, 19 (4):1395-1404.
3. Liebenthal E, Binder JR, Piorkowski RL, Remez RE. (2003) Short-Term Reorganization of Auditory Cortex Induced by Phonetic Expectation. J. Cog. Neurosci. 15 (4):549-558.
4. Liebenthal E, Pratt H. (1999) Human auditory cortex electrophysiological correlates of the Precedence effect: Binaural echo lateralization suppression. J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 106:291-303.
5. Liebenthal E, Pratt H. (1997) Evidence for primary auditory cortex involvement in the echo suppression precedence effect: a 3CLT study. J Basic Clin. Physiol. Pharmacol. 8 (3):185-201.